CAT/OP/CRI/CSPRO/1
134. Article 165 of the national prison system regulations establishes a series of basic
principles to which professionals providing services and support must adhere:
• Support plans must be based on scientific studies
• A direct relationship must be established with the person deprived of liberty
• Services and support must be tailored to the individual on the basis of professional
studies that take into account personal, social and environmental factors, as well as
prison conditions, legal status and capacity to live with others
• Services and support must be interdisciplinary, utilizing various methods of
professional, individual and group treatment, with respect for the fundamental rights
of participants
• Services and support must be continuous, constant, and dynamic and must be able to
adapt to the development and responses of the person deprived of liberty
135. Article 166 of the regulations establishes that decisions regarding the professional
support provided to each inmate are taken by the Council for the Provision of Professional
Services in Comprehensive Rehabilitation Units on the basis of the inmate’s personal
characteristics, his or her personal and social vulnerability, the type of crime committed,
victimological aspects, the penalty imposed, his or her capacity for coexisting with others
and the level of containment that he or she requires. The details of all services provided must
be recorded.
136. In comprehensive rehabilitation units, evaluation must be continuous and systematic
and services provided by the professionals of the centre or unit must be monitored and
assessed in accordance with the relevant support plan.
137. Unfortunately, in view of the grave situation facing the country as a result of the
permanent overcrowding of prisons, the Ministry of Justice and Peace has had to allocate
additional space for the detention of persons deprived of liberty. All available resources must
be used to their maximum capacity in order to apply the law, meaning that space within the
comprehensive rehabilitation units has been requisitioned for this purpose. This does not
entail a change in the support model, however, since all persons detained in the
comprehensive rehabilitation units benefit from the services provided there.
Treatment of women deprived of their liberty (paras. 83 and 85)
138. The regionalization project of the Ministry of Justice and Peace is an institutional
initiative to bring women convicts closer to their external support networks (family members,
children, acquaintances, partners, etc.) while they serve their sentences. Women with children
aged 3 or under may live together with those children in the mother-and-child unit.
139. Work is under way on three new women’s prison facilities outside the Greater
Metropolitan Area (the current women’s prison is located in the capital), in Pérez Zeledón,
Pococí and Puntarenas. Each facility will have the capacity to house 36 women (4 in the
mother-and-child units and 32 in the dormitories). Work on the Pérez Zeledón facility has
been already completed and the Pococí facility was officially finished in November. These
two facilities represent an investment of approximately 992,465,360.86 million colones
(approximately $1.6 million). The facilities are expected to open in late 2020 or early 2021,
and will operate according to a prison regime based on social reintegration and gender
mainstreaming in all support processes. The location of these new facilities will allow women
convicts from nearby areas to serve their sentences closer to their families and communities.
The Puntarenas facility is expected to open in 2021 or 2022; the project is currently in the
procurement stage.
140. The application of non-custodial measures in line with the United Nations Rules for
the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the
Bangkok Rules) falls within the jurisdiction of the courts, in accordance with the principle of
judicial autonomy and independence. Nonetheless, in order to clarify the situation with regard
to the application of non-custodial measures, a study was conducted into the number of
women in respect of whom Act No. 9271 on the Use of Electronic Monitoring Devices in
Criminal Justice (one of the non-custodial measures provided for in the Criminal Code) had
GE.20-17766
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