CAT/OP/PER/1 2. Physical conditions 95. In the Maranguita and Santa Margarita centres, the Subcommittee generally found acceptable physical conditions. However, in Maranguita it noted that one of the rooms on the first floor and some sanitation facilities in the Domingo Savio courtyard were closed due to their poor condition. The punishment cells were very damp and had no windows, which made them dark and poorly ventilated; and the latrines inside were substandard and foul-smelling. In the event of an emergency evacuation, the lives of the adolescents, especially those in cells 3 and 4, would be at risk, given that the doors of the grilles get stuck and are secured with three padlocks that take time to open. In Santa Margarita, the Subcommittee noted that the punishment cells are very small, have no windows and are extremely dark. 96. On the day of the Subcommittee’s visit, there were 732 adolescents in the Maranguita centre, which has a capacity of 560. The La Floresta centre in Trujillo, with a capacity of 70 beds, held 130 young persons. In the centres it visited, the Subcommittee found that the educators dealing with the adolescents, performed poorly, and there was a shortage of professionals such as teachers, psychologists and psychiatrists. It was also clear that the space and resources available to those professionals for their work were quite inadequate. The director of the La Floresta centre complained of inadequate facilities and a lack of qualified staff in the centre. 97. The Subcommittee recommends drawing up a plan of action to substantially improve the facilities and training of staff working with adolescents in conflict with the law. With regard to the Maranguita centre, the Subcommittee recommends immediately closing the intensive intervention sector, particularly punishment cells 3 and 4, as their use puts the safety of the adolescents at risk. 98. The Subcommittee recommends accelerating the renovation and extension of the La Floresta centre in order to improve the conditions of detention and rehabilitation of the adolescents there. 3. Torture and ill-treatment 99. In Maranguita, some adolescents informed the Subcommittee that they had been subjected to ill-treatment on arrest and in police stations, including treatment that amounted to torture. However, the most consistent and frequent allegations concerned the treatment received in the intensive intervention programme in that centre. They claimed that they are beaten by the educators, and even by the director, for the slightest offence, or when they complain about physical conditions and services, for instance the poor state of the mattresses. The Subcommittee noted that in the staff room of one of the blocks, there were three canes that fit the adolescents’ description of the objects used to beat them. In that block, the Subcommittee also saw a room that, according to the allegations, is used as a punishment room. Some adolescents referred to suicides and suicide attempts in recent months. In the La Floresta centre, the minors did not answer the Subcommittee’s questions about their treatment, but simply said that they spent much of the day locked in their cells doing nothing. The cells visited by the Subcommittee had 24 beds in an area of approximately 28 m2. 100. Although Administrative Resolution No. 040-2013-GG-PJ defines minor, serious and very serious disciplinary offences, it gives the authorities in those centres broad discretion in imposing sanctions. In practice, the intensive intervention programme takes the form of disciplinary measures that involve locking adolescents in punishment cells in solitary confinement for periods of up to 90 days, i.e., longer than in adult prisons (30 days plus a further 15). Adolescents interviewed in Maranguita claimed that some had been kept in punishment cells for 4 to 6 months. On the Subcommittee’s first visit to this centre, there were 41 adolescents in punishment cells. Some claimed that before being put in the punishment cells, they were dragged around and beaten, handcuffed to trees and later beaten with canes and punched by the three shifts of security guards who work in the establishment, for between one and three days. The adolescents are then taken to a dark room, where they remain for a day before being transferred to the punishment cells. The Subcommittee also observed marks and bruises on the bodies of some of the adolescents 14 GE.17-13638