The National Institute of Human Rights (INDH) carried out a study on the prisons of our country, revealing the poor conditions in which people deprived of liberty find themselves.
The report was made with data from 2019 and different negligences were detected, such as a variety of pests, insufficient beds and lack of food.
The prison system has 83 precincts, of which 45 have overcrowding in their prison. Specifically, 19 units exceed 140% occupancy, standing out Tatal (265.6%), Copiapó (220.7), Santiago Sur (203.8%) and Petorca (200%).
Lack of beds and presence of pests
As detailed by the INDH, in many prisons in the regions of Valparaíso, Metropolitana, O’Higgins, BioBío and La Araucanía they did not have adequate hygiene conditions.
44 penitentiary precincts were visited and in 11 there were no beds for all the inmates, in addition, in 23 there was no guarantee of access to drinking water 24 hours a day, and even less to privacy in the use of hygienic services.
In addition, plagues of kissing bugs, mice, bedbugs, fleas, pigeons and/or cockroaches were detected.
Bad nutrition
In 20 of the 44 units observed, it was found that inmates were not provided with plates, trays or cutlery to eat. Moreover, it was found that long ranges of time elapsed between one meal and another, even reaching 20 hours.
In other cases, it was identified that the food was not adequate to the point of including feces in many of them.
