The document was prepared together with the National Human Rights Institution (Inddhh) and published by the newspaper El Observador.

According to the text, in this penitentiary there are “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments or punishments” which aggravate the mental health conditions of the prisoners and constitute an “added punishment” to the deprivation of liberty.

The prosecutor of Flagrancy, Gabriela Fossati, is investigating several acts of violence that took place in the last weeks in the Women’s Prison, also known as Unit Five.

This after an inmate denounced that other inmates tried to rape her with a stick, while in the last hours a video was made public in which it is seen how a woman tries to tattoo her name with a knife to another one.

The investigation focused on the fifth level of the prison, where violent episodes occurred in recent weeks.

Of the eight cells on that level, only two are occupied because the others are “unused”.

“On the fifth level, the infrastructure was in terrible conditions,” the commissioner’s letter states. And it adds that the showers did not work, in some cases there were no toilets and since there was no hot water the prisoners had “irregular devices”, which meant that there was a “risk of electrocution”. Moreover, some women slept on mattresses on the floor and others had to share beds because there were not enough of them.

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