Prison conditions continued to be harsh. Prisons continued to be overcrowded, and facilities, sanitation, and medical care were seriously deficient. There were a few reports of beatings of prisoners that included beatings by prison officials as well as among prisoners. There were some reports of prisoner-on-prisoner sexual assaults, allegedly due to lax security by prison guards.
Physical Conditions: In 2012, for the first time in decades, the government published the number of prisoners, declaring that 57,337 persons were incarcerated. The government made no similar publication during the year, nor did it provide information regarding the number, location, or capacity of detention centers, which included not only prisons but also work camps and other kinds of detention facilities. Human rights organizations estimated there were more than 65,000 prisoners and detainees.
Men and women were held in separate prisons and police detention facilities. Generally, women reported the same poor prison conditions as men, including inadequate medical care. Women also reported lack of access to feminine hygiene products and inadequate prenatal care. There were reports of inmates as young as 15 in maximum-security prisons.
Prison cells lacked adequate water, sanitation, space, light, ventilation, and temperature control. Although the state provided basic food and some medical care, many prisoners relied on family parcels for food and other basic supplies. Potable water was frequently unavailable. Prison cells were overcrowded, limiting freedom of movement during the day. Prisoners often slept on concrete bunks without a mattress, with some reports of more than one person sharing a narrow bunk. Where available, mattresses were thin and often infested with vermin and insects.
Prisoners, family members, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) reported inadequate health care, which led to or aggravated multiple maladies. Prisoners also reported outbreaks of dengue, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and cholera. Prison health workers reportedly reused syringes, raising safety and hygiene concerns.
Political prisoners and the general prison population were held in similar conditions. Political prisoners who refused to wear standard prison uniforms were denied certain privileges, such as access to prison libraries and standard reductions in the severity of their sentence (for example, being transferred from a maximum-security to a medium-security prison). The government sometimes placed healthy prisoners, including political prisoners, in cells with mentally disturbed inmates as punishment. Political prisoners also reported being threatened or harassed by fellow inmates whom they believed were acting on orders of prison authorities.
There were reports of prison deaths from heart attacks, asthma attacks, HIV/AIDS, and other chronic medical conditions, as well as from suicide.
Prisoners reported that solitary confinement was a common punishment for misconduct and that some had been held in isolation for months or even years at a time. In general prisoners in isolation had restrictions on family visits.
Prisoners who criticized the government or engaged in hunger strikes and other forms of protest were subjected to extended solitary confinement, beatings, restrictions on family visits, and denial of medical care. Prisoners had no effective complaint mechanism to seek redress.
Administration: There was no publicly available information about prison administration or recordkeeping in the prison system.
Alternative sentencing was available for nonviolent offenders and for juveniles. Nonviolent offenders may be sentenced to probation. Juveniles may be sentenced to one of 12 Escuelas de Formacion Integral, or Holistic Training Schools, which worked to rehabilitate troubled youth.
A legal department within the Attorney General’s Office is empowered to investigate allegations of abuse in the prison system. The results of these investigations were not publicly accessible. By law prisoners and detainees may seek redress regarding prison conditions and procedural violations, such as continued incarceration after their prison sentence has expired. Prisoners reported that government officials refused to allow or accept complaints, or failed to respond to the complaints once submitted.
Prisoners and pretrial detainees had access to visitors, although some political prisoners’ relatives reported that prison officials arbitrarily canceled scheduled visits. Some prisoners were able to communicate information about their living conditions through telephone calls to human rights observers and reports to family members.
Prisoners could practice limited religious observance. The Catholic Church and other church groups reported access to prisoners during the year, with services offered in prisons and detention centers in most, if not all, provinces. The interdenominational seminary in Matanzas reported developing a program to train chaplains to offer religious counseling to prisoners. There were isolated reports that prison authorities did not inform inmates of their right to religious assistance, delayed months before responding to such requests, and limited visits to a maximum of two or three times per year.
Independent Monitoring: The government did not permit independent monitoring of prison conditions by international or national human rights groups and did not permit access to detainees by international humanitarian organizations. Although the government pledged in previous years to allow a visit by the UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment, no visit occurred during the year. Unlike in 2013 the government did not invite foreign journalists to tour specific prisons. Independent human rights organizations were not allowed access to prisons during the year.