A/HRC/16/52/Add.5 Baisu Correctional Facility, Mount Hagen Visited on 22 May 2010 General information The Special Rapporteur was received by Donald Apeti, Assistant Duty Officer and Major Jackson Kera. The commanding officer, Superintendent Simon Sobaim, was not present. The Senior Administrative Inspector John D. Eluh was in charge at the time of the visit. Mr. Eluh was responsible for welfare operations and rehabilitation. The prison had 378 detainees, including 46 women and 38 juveniles. There were more remandees than convicted detainees. At the debriefing, John Eluh barely knew anything about the facility, and was not aware that two inmates had recently died in their cells. There were 94 staff members, and Mr. Eluh indicated that they needed 200 to 300 more. He described the security situation as very poor and stated there are frequent breakouts. He added that male detainees were not always taken to the hospital due to the high risk of escapes. On 13 April 2010, 84 detainees had escaped in a major breakout. 23 had been recaptured and 61 were still at-large. The Special Rapporteur interviewed all escapees who were caught during or shortly after the escape. All of them were severely beaten up and put in the punishment cells. He documented their injuries (gun shots from close distance, partly also from long distance in order to prevent the escape; beatings with bush knives or grass knives and cuts of their legs or tendons with the intent of disabling them). None of them had been taken to the hospital or received any medical treatment. According to the information provided by the detainees and confirmed by the officers, one escapee, L.O., had died in the detention cell at around 10 pm on 13 April. He had been shot and beaten. M.U. died on 29 April as a result of heavy beatings. Some detainees also alleged the death of a third detainee in the punishment cell in early May, but the officers denied this. No investigations were initiated in either of these cases. The situation in the prison was terrible. There were no sports, no recreational and rehabilitation facilities, the detainees were locked in their cellblocks for most of the day, the food was of a poor quality and insufficient quantity, detainees had very little water, the medical facilities were closed down because there was no health worker available, and the detainees had no access to the hospital in Mount Hagen. Male section The male section was divided into four cellblocks (high, medium and low risk prisoners and a section for remandees). 22 detainees were in the detention cells. The detainees did not have enough food, with seven detainees having to share one tin of fish. The cooking utensils were old and the pans made the rice burn. They were locked up for 19 hours per day in overcrowded cells, and they had no books or a library. They also receive no education. Many detainees had to serve 20-year sentences and would like to learn a trade such as carpentry, mechanics, or information technology as a form of rehabilitation and to have the skills needed to reintegrate into society, but nothing was provided. They had no blankets and not enough plates. There was also a lack of hygiene, and detainees had died of illnesses such as diarrhoea and scabies. The toilet did not flush and the detainees had to use water collected from outside the cell. Sick prisoners also lived in the same area as the other detainees and diseases could easily spread throughout the prison population. At least five detainees with mental illnesses were held with the other detainees and should be separated. 56