98 351 Nicaragua and Paraguay. For the most part, the relevant constitutional provisions establish that people in pretrial detention should be placed in different centers from those holding convicted prisoners. 254. However, despite the legal framework establishing and regulating the obligation of States to keep persons in pretrial detention separate from convicted persons and in conditions consistent with their status of innocent, the reality observed in most countries of the region is completely different. As a general rule, pretrial detainees are kept in the same facilities as those already convicted and serving sentence and, as such, are subjected to the same overcrowded, unsanitary and violent conditions, to lack of access to the most basic means of subsistence and to other restrictions to 352 which the general population is also exposed. In fact, in many instances, persons in pretrial detention have even more restricted access to certain activities, such as work or education, than what convicted persons have, because of the very fact that convicted individuals are in the process of serving their sentence. 255. In practice, the classification criteria for the adult prison population of the same sex is actually predicated on factors such as whether or not the person is a gang or organized crime member, the socioeconomic status of the detainee (whether or not the person is able to pay for accommodations in a nicer part of the prison facility), whether or not the person is a former public official or member of the public security forces, whether or not the inmate poses a serious threat to peaceful interaction among the general population, whether or not the prisoner has mental or contagious diseases, or if they are elderly. The legal status of the defendant, however, is usually not a classification criterion that is applied consistently. 256. This situation is exacerbated in penitentiary contexts characterized by overcrowding and the lack of adequate resources and infrastructure to properly operate. These factors cause a ripple effect saturating prisons one by one, including provisional detention facilities, until authorities begin to hold convicted persons in 353 police stations or headquarters and other makeshift holding facilities, which are not 351 Constitution of Ecuador Art. 77.2; Political Constitution of the Republic of Guatemala Art. 10; Constitution of Haiti Art. 44; Political Constitution of the Republic of Honduras Art. 86; Political Constitution of the United Mexican States Art. 18; Political Constitution of Nicaragua Art. 33(5); and National Constitution of Paraguay Art. 21. 352 Even in instances when persons in pretrial detention are in separate facilities, it is common for them to suffer the structural deficiencies of prison systems, at times, with dramatic consequences, as was the case in Chile on December 8, 2010, when 81 inmates in tower 5 of the Pretrial detention Center (Centro de Detención Preventiva or CDP) of San Miguel, died as a result of a fire on the fourth floor of the tower. It was, in fact, the worst prison tragedy in the history of that country. National Human Rights Institute (INDH), Human Rights Situation in Chile – 2011 Annual Report, p. 25. 353 For example, the IACHR has received reports that prison facilities in Guatemala have even been set up on military bases. Response to the survey questionnaire in conjunction with the “Thematic Report on Pretrial Detention in the Americas” of the IACHR, Office of the Special Prosecutor for Human Rights of Guatemala, November 2, 2012, p. 6. This issue was examined in greater detail at the Thematic Hearing: Human Rights Situation of Persons Deprived of Liberty in Guatemala, 141st regular period of sessions, requested by the human rights organizations ICCPG, UDEFEGUA and CEJIL, March 29, 2011.