CAT/OP/BOL/3 V. Situation of persons deprived of their liberty A. Police stations 65. The Subcommittee observed very poor material conditions in the police stations it visited. Shortcomings in this respect included the lack of a drinking water supply in cells, a lack of health care and hygiene services, the absence of mattresses and/or beds and a failure to provide food to detainees. The Subcommittee observed detainees sleeping on the floor in dirty cells with inadequate infrastructure, poor ventilation and no natural light. While some police stations, such as the integrated police stations in Cochabamba, are of recent construction, the cells seen by the Subcommittee still do not comply with minimum standards in terms of equipment, services and space. In the Subcommittee’s view, the cumulative effect of these poor conditions is equivalent to inhuman and degrading treatment. 66. The Subcommittee recommends that the State party adopt a strategy and provide sufficient financial resources to ensure that police stations and cells meet international minimum standards, including those concerning hygienic conditions and the provision of drinking water and food. B. Prisons and jails 67. The Subcommittee returned to the men’s and women’s prisons that it had toured on its first visit, as well as other places of detention, including some “carceletas” (small prisons or jails) located in rural areas. (a) Overcrowding and overpopulation 68. In its 2010 report, the Subcommittee discussed the “unsustainable levels of overcrowding” that it had found in almost all of the country’s prisons. Since then, the situation has deteriorated and remains in violation of international standards, with the overcrowding in some prisons being worse than what the Subcommittee had witnessed during its first visit. This is true, for example, of San Pedro Prison in La Paz, whose population stood at 400 per cent of capacity as of 2017. 69. At the San Sebastián Men’s Prison, which has a capacity of 200, the Subcommittee found that the population had risen from 600 prisoners in 2010 to 717 in 2017. Eighty per cent of the prisoners there were being held in pretrial detention. The Subcommittee observed some detainees living in deplorable conditions, since, having no cells, they had adapted makeshift sleeping spaces in unsafe, hard-to-reach locations on the roof of the building. Meanwhile the San Roque Prison in Sucre — capacity 235 — housed 527 inmates. 70. The Subcommittee notes the measures taken by the State party to combat overcrowding, such as the expansion of prison infrastructure and the introduction of laws designed to ease congestion by providing for the use of pardons and amnesties and recourse to summary proceedings. However, it is concerned that these measures are short-term and exceptional in nature and do not offer a lasting solution to the structural problem posed by the number of detainees awaiting trial. 71. The Subcommittee notes with great concern that the underlying causes of prison overcrowding in the State party remain in evidence: (a) The prevalence of recourse to pretrial detention; (b) Procedural shortcomings in summary proceedings that may promote selfincrimination and plea bargaining; (c) Deprivation of liberty for failure to pay child support or alimony or to repay employment-related debts; GE.18-12272 13