The situation in Neuquén Detention Unit 11 is dramatic. There are 264 people housed in a space for 233, and overcrowding represents just one of the problems. The electrical installation is precarious and is combined with the water that permanently floods some cellsso the electrocution hazard it’s constant. There are sectors without light where the detainees remain in the dark up to ten hours per day. Poor natural light enters through the tiny windows but the cold sneaks in without difficulty and the heating does not work. Neither does he fire protection system so if an accident occurs the consequences could be catastrophic. There are no blankets for everyone.although many are piled up in a prison warehouse. Why they don’t distribute them, it is not known.. There are people who sleep on the floor; others They removed the fabric from the mattresses to use as shelter.
This emerges from a survey carried out by the Committee Against Torture, presented this Tuesday in a court hearing in the presence of the Minister of Security, Matías Nicolini, on whom the prison depends.
After three net hours of debate, the Judge of Criminal Execution, Raquel Gass, He gave the provincial government a period of three months to enable Pavilion 7, whose renovation was left pending by the previous administration. The sector has been unoccupied since October 2023 and people were crowded into other pavilions.
As requested by the Criminal Execution defense, Luciana Petraglia and Juan Galarraga; and Natalia Lacoste and Carolina Mauri for the prosecution, the summons was under threat of imposing a fine for each day of non-compliance, which is known as astreintes.
Without all the materials the work does not begin
To prevent history from repeating itself, the judge also ordered the prohibition to start any work of spare parts “until the materials are purchased so that the work can begin and end.”
«You cannot continue vacating pavilions to start a work and have it extended without deadlines, it is impossible, that happened with 7. If you are going to undertake a work, you must provide the materials and then rehouse inmates, which is not minor,” Gass said.
Fire protection system
On the other hand he gave within 24 hours so that the government informs if the fire extinguishers are in the pavilions, and if not, that they be replaced immediately. In three months it should be installed and functioning fire fighting system.
This prison crisis had its fatal victims: defender Petraglia recalled that on August 30, 2022, inmates Maximiliano Mérgola and Víctor Herrera died, asphyxiated by a fire.
Regarding the heating, Gass indicated that they are “old equipment, the cost of replacing them is enormous. Annual maintenance is done but When the cold begins, we find that there are several pavilions to which the heat does not reach. Even last week the inmates of Ward 1 presented a habeas corpus to make the claim.
The judge granted seven days term so that heating and hot water are guaranteed to all people housed in the First District.
There are 325 in Detention Units alone, there are more in police stations “in worse conditions,” Gass said. «It is unusual, but the convicted people ask to be transferred to Unit 11 because of the conditions in the police stations.
Pavilion 6B
He also ordered the purchase of mattresses, and for Pavilion 6B They must be fireproof. The inmates reject them because they are uncomfortable, but “the situation there is more complex and they are necessary.”
The Committee’s report particularly reflected the critical situation in that area. Buamscha said that it completely lacks light, so they spend “more than 10 hours in the dark in the winter and natural light is scarce. This situation is considered a form of torture.
Added to this «there are no personal belongings, changes of clothes, blankets or pillows. There are no utensils of any kind or personal objects. Almost all cells are observed with remains of soot and two in particular with a penetrating smell of soot from a recent fire.
Nicolini, agree
At the end of the hearing, Minister Nicolini told RÍO NEGRO newspaper that he was satisfied and expressed confidence that he will be able to meet the deadlines imposed on him. About Pavilion 7 he said that In 15 days to a month it would be enabled.
When it was his turn to testify as a witness, he avoided giving deadlines for all the pending works. “We are working. For example, for the firefighting network, the need for materials dropped from more than 100 million pesos to 22 million. “I don’t want to give deadlines, but we are working.”
The defender Petraglia stressed that deadlines are important for public administration and for habeas corpus, which is why she insisted on asking him to set a deadline.
Nicolini responded that the declaration of a prison emergency helps speed up times, but there are steps that must be followed, such as the evaluation of offers. “You can’t contract just anything, we are defending the public treasury”said.
The crisis grows
The Committee Against Torture carried out monitoring between February 15 and March 10. They interviewed 250 inmates and relieved them one by one all the cells and corners of the prison. He concluded that they do not meet “any standard of habitability.”
Defender Petraglia remarked that “from 2014 to today, The prison population grows at a rate of 7% to 10% annually. Five years after the Senillosa prison was handed over to the Federal Penitentiary Service, we see how much we lost; Today we could have all the inmates there” and there would be no overcrowding.
He rescued the “good will” of the new authorities, taking into account that they took office in December of last year, but stressed that “We must guarantee the continuity of the State”.
The hearing took place just one year after Rolando Figueroa’s victory in the gubernatorial elections. If anything was clear, it was that The prison crisis, at best, barely occupied a line on the transition agenda..
Division of powers
Judge Gass stated that «we have had an absence of penitentiary policy“, but clarified that” I respect the division of powers. The design, elaboration and preparation of these policies correspond to the Executive Branch. The Judiciary does not co-manage, but controls afterwards.
At the hearing, apart from Nicolini, the director of Detention Units, Chief Commissioner Ricardo Vergara, the director of Penitentiary Policies, Gastón Ponce, and the director of Judicialized Population, Natalia Vallejos, testified as witnesses.
Next to the defense sat the president of the Committee Against Torture, Estefanía Buamscha, a fact that Petraglia described as “historical”.
