109 emergency situations; it restricts inmates’ access to productive activities; it fuels 384 corruption; it affects inmates’ contact with their families; and, in short, it generates 385 serious problems in the actual management of prison facilities. 289. Another serious consequence of overcrowding is that it makes it impossible to classify inmates by categories, such as, pretrial detainees and convicted persons, which is a breach of Article 5.4 of the American Convention and of the duty of the State to treat pretrial detainees differently, in accordance with the presumption of 386 innocence. Additionally, as has been noted above, saturation of prisons and detention centers can lead to holding people in custody at police stations or other facilities that are not designed, nor are suitably staffed, for housing people for an extended period of time. 290. Moreover, under international human rights law, overcrowding of persons deprived of liberty in itself could constitute a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, violating the right to personal integrity and other internationally 387 recognized human rights. Therefore, when the collapse of a prison system or of a particular detention center makes it materially impossible to provide inmates with dignified living conditions, the State can no longer continue to place individuals in those facilities, because in so doing, it is deliberately subjecting them to a situation that 388 In particular, international human rights law violates their fundamental rights. imposes an absolute prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 291. With respect to the space to which persons deprived of liberty are entitled, the European Court of Human Rights established in the case of Ananyev and others v. Russia that four square meters is the minimum amount of space that each 384 IACHR, Truth, Justice and Reparation: Fourth Report on the Human Rights Situation in Colombia, 2013, Ch. VI(G). 385 IACHR, Truth, Justice and Reparation: Fourth Report on the Human Rights Situation in Colombia, 2013, Ch. VI(G); IACHR, Report of the Inter-American Commission on the Human Rights Situation of Persons Deprived of Liberty in Honduras, para. 66; IACHR, Report on the Human Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty in the Americas, paras. 455-456. 386 IACHR, Truth, Justice and Reparation: Fourth Report on the Human Rights Situation in Colombia, 2013, Ch. VI(G); IACHR, Report on the Human Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty in the Americas, para. 457. 387 IACHR, Truth, Justice and Reparation: Fourth Report on the Human Rights Situation in Colombia, 2013, Ch. VI(G); IACHR, Report of the Inter-American Commission on the Human Rights Situation of Persons Deprived of Liberty in Honduras, para. 67; IACHR, Report on the Human Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty in the Americas, para. 460. See also I/A Court HR., Case of Pacheco Teruel et al v. Honduras. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment April 27, 2012. Series C No. 241, para. 67(a); European Court of Human Rights, Case of Ananyev and Others v. Russia, Judgment January 10, 2012 (First Section of the Court), paras. 144-148; UN, Committee against Torture, Report on Brazil prepared by the Committee in the framework of Article 20 of the Convention, and response from Brazil, CAT/C/39/2, published on March 3, 2009, para. 189; UN, Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions, Report on the Mission to El Salvador, A/HRC/22/44/Add.2, published on January 11, 2013, para. 96. 388 IACHR, Truth, Justice and Reparation: Fourth Report on the Human Rights Situation in Colombia, 2013, Ch. VI(G).

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