CAT/OP/BOL/3 (d) Ensure that the national preventive mechanism complies fully with the other requirements set forth in the Optional Protocol and the guidelines on national preventive mechanisms.4 III. Allegations of torture and ill-treatment and impunity A. Allegations of torture and other ill-treatment 17. Several persons interviewed by the Subcommittee stated that acts of torture and illtreatment are frequently committed by members of the police force and the prison service and by inmates belonging to the prisons’ self-governing structure as a method of investigation, extortion, punishment or discipline. 18. During the visit to San Juan de Dios Psychiatric Hospital in Sucre, the Subcommittee noted the excessive and prolonged use of chemical, physical and mechanical restraints (for example, patients being tied to chairs with belts as a means of immobilizing them). 19. In particular, the Subcommittee wishes to highlight, as matters of great concern, the following allegations: (a) In Chonchocoro Prison, a maximum security facility, prisoners reported being taken from their cells at night — both by prison staff and by section representatives and other members of the prison’s self-governing hierarchy — and being beaten, sometimes stabbed, tied to wire fencing and forced to spend the night in the open. According to statements collected by the Subcommittee, the practice of punishing and “baptizing” or “welcoming” new arrivals also involved insults, disproportionate use of force, beatings administered to “teach them what would happen if they get out of line”, blows with sticks on the back and groin, asphyxiation with plastic bags, the use of irritant gases, orders to strip and do push-ups, extreme physical exercise and immersion in cold water. (b) In the Nueva Vida Santa Cruz Social Reintegration Centre for Juvenile Offenders (CENVICRUZ), security personnel responsible for maintaining discipline at the Centre allegedly took adolescents out of their bunk rooms at night, beat them and tied them to wooden stakes in the courtyard, where they had to crouch with their heads down, deprived of sleep, sometimes for more than 24 hours. At the Cometa Centre, in Cochabamba, several interviewees reported the excessive use of force and the use of electric shocks, irritant gas, sleep deprivation and public beatings on the facility’s soccer field. 20. Furthermore, the Subcommittee is concerned about the inhumane material conditions existing in the punishment cells (referred to as “cages”, “holes” or “dungeons”) in the prisons it visited. In the Mocoví Men’s Prison, for example, a single punishment cell housed 15 prisoners, who, unable to move for want of space, were half-naked, had not received food and showed visible marks of beatings and whippings on their backs and inner thighs. Some of them said that they had been in the cell, which had no toilet, for more than three weeks, sleeping on the floor on dirty blankets. The Subcommittee noted similar inhumane conditions in the Chonchocoro “cages”. The Subcommittee has concluded that the inhumane material conditions of detention in these cells (overcrowding, a lack of food, a complete lack of hygiene), coupled with the lack of safeguards (medical assistance, access to justice) and long periods of detention in these conditions, amount to ill-treatment and could in some cases be considered torture. 21. The Subcommittee therefore recommends that the State party: (a) Regularly provide police and prison officers with training in the categorical observance of the absolute and mandatory prohibition of torture and illtreatment and ensure that this prohibition is incorporated into any general rules or 4 GE.18-12272 CAT/OP/12/5. 5