CAT/OP/BOL/3 (d) Failure to implement prisoner release orders due to administrative obstacles or the lack of identity documents for use in monitoring and following up on individual cases. 72. The Subcommittee reminds the State party that extreme overcrowding — as was observed in several locations — violates the rights of persons deprived of their liberty and amounts to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. In view of the unsustainable levels of overcrowding and the presence of inmates suffering from tuberculosis at several of the facilities that were visited, the Subcommittee emphasizes that urgent measures are needed and that those measures should “form part of a top-level State policy”.24 73. The Subcommittee recommends that the State party: (a) Promote the enhanced use of information technology tools to keep records on persons deprived of their liberty and closely monitor the duration of pretrial detention; (b) Undertake a thorough evaluation of the use of plea-bargaining procedures, ensuring that the rights to a defence and to due process are respected; (c) Ensure the separation of pretrial detainees from convicted prisoners, considering that the former should be subject to a regime that is appropriate to their status as unconvicted persons; (d) Use alternatives to the deprivation of liberty for cases of non-compliance with family maintenance obligations or the non-payment of employment-related benefits. (b) Material conditions 74. The Subcommittee notes that, in general, the material conditions in the country’s prisons fall far short of acceptable standards, particularly in the San Pedro, Palmasola, San Sebastián (both the men’s and women’s facilities) and Mocoví prisons. 75. The country’s prison infrastructure is old and, in prisons in La Paz, persons deprived of their liberty have had to modify their cells on their own. San Pedro Prison does not meet minimum standards for hygiene, health services, adequate ventilation or mattresses; the Subcommittee takes the view that conditions of detention in this prison amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. 76. The Subcommittee reiterates the recommendations it made to the State party in 2010 and calls upon it to take urgent action to close the prisons of San Pedro in La Paz and Palmasola in Santa Cruz. 77. Persons deprived of their liberty do not have an adequate standard of living, since their access to food, medical attention, medicines, clothing, beds and personal hygiene items depends mainly on their financial means and often on the support of family members. Some detainees had been paid their daily meals allowance (prediario) more than one month late. The Subcommittee was informed that minors living with their mothers in prison did not receive a daily meals allowance. 78. The Subcommittee observed extremely unsanitary conditions at the Chonchocoro, San Sebastián (men’s) and San Pedro prisons, where drinking water and sanitation services are in short supply. At Chonchocoro Prison, access to drinking water is intermittent, and it is non-existent in what is known as the “lorera”, an area where prisoners are overcrowded and must share a foul-smelling toilet. (c) Prison activity programmes 79. In some prisons, the Subcommittee noted that some physical spaces were set aside for primary and/or secondary studies and for workshops, chiefly for carpentry, weaving, tailoring and hairdressing. Cooking and doing laundry are regarded as women’s work in the 24 14 CAT/OP/BOL/R.1, párr. 143. GE.18-12272

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