Information on the requested subjects could not be found among the sources consulted by the DIRB.

A staff member of the Comisión Permanente de Derechos Humanos (CPDH) of Nicaragua, in a 17 January 1995 telephone interview, stated that treatment of prisoners is generally the same in all jails. Some prisoners are subjected to physical abuse by guards, particularly during interrogations, as a result of actual or perceived disciplinary problems, or for other reasons (ibid.). The government's limited resources have resulted in a poor quality of facilities and services, including insufficient or low-quality food (ibid.). Details on the authorities responsible for Jinotepe jail during the requested period were not readily available to the source.

For background information on the prison system in Nicaragua, please refer to previous Responses to Information Requests and their attachments, such as NIC22385.E of 29 Nov. 1995 and NIC20204.E of 29 Mar. 1995, which are available through your Regional Documentation Centre.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below a list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Comisión Permanente de Derechos Humanos (CPDH), Managua. 17 January 1995. Telephone interview with staff member.

Amnesty International Report. Yearly.

Central America NewsPak [Austin, Tex.]. Fortnightly.

Central America Report [Guatemala]. Weekly.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Yearly. U.S. Department of State. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Critique: Review of the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Yearly. New York: Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.

Human Rights Watch World Report. Yearly. New York: Human Rights Watch.

News from Human Rights Watch/Americas [New York]. Monthly.

Latinamerica Press [Lima]. Weekly.

Latin American Weekly Report [London]. Weekly.

Latin American Regional Reports: Central America & the Caribbean [London]. Monthly.

Material from the Indexed Media Review (IMR) or country files containing articles and reports from diverse sources (primarily dailies and periodicals) from the Weekly Media Review.

Newspapers and periodicals pertaining to the appropriate region.

IRB, USINS and UNHCR databases.

On-line searches of news articles.

Note on oral sources:

Oral sources are usually contacted when documentary sources have been exhausted. However, oral sources must agree to be quoted in a publicly available Response to Information Request. If they refuse, the Response will read "no information currently available." Contacting oral sources is also subject to time constraints; for example, there are periods of the year when academics are unavailable.

Note:

This list is not exhaustive. Country-specific books available in the Resource Centre are not included.