According to the Court’s ruling, in these instances there was evidence of overcrowding, infrastructure failures, lack of health services and inmates are barred from talking to family members.

These are transitory centers where people are taken once they are prosecuted, but they remain there without having the conditions for it or guarantees of compliance with their rights.

The Chamber of the Constitutional Court extended the declaration of the unconstitutional state of affairs of the Colombian prison system due to the massive violation of human rights in said areas.

“The Chamber found that the situation of overcrowding in penitentiary and prison establishments overflowed in such a way that people who are captured and whose legal situation has already been defined by a judge cannot be transferred and formally enter the penitentiary and prison system,” the Court said.

For this reason, detainees are held in spaces that are not suitable for guaranteeing decent imprisonment and are subjected to a systematic violation of their rights.

mh/llp/jha/otf