(QCOSTARICA) Unhygienic, broken, dirty and without any blanket or foam liner, inmates of La Reforma prison described to the Constitutional Court, the conditions of the mattresses they must share with their partners during conjugal visits.
After hearing theirs stories, the country’s highest court ordered the Ministry of Justice (Ministerio de Justicia) to provide within three months, adequate mattresses for use in the F block of the maximum security area of the prison.
In their decision, the Court justices said it had been proven that in the conjugal visit bedrooms, the mattresses are in poor condition.
La Nacion, in its report, said it visited two of the four rooms in Block F used for conjugal visits, both 9 square meters ( 95 square feet), had a bathroom and a thick foam mattress in good condition on a cement base.
Guillermo Cantillo, director of Block F, told reporter David Delgado that the inmates are constantly destroying the mattresses.
Cantillo added that the day before (ahead of the Court decision) he had requested mattresses (from outside the prison) to be delivered as soon as possible. The official added that he will be requesting the purchase of more. The official explained that the mattresses are “matrimonial” (double), larger than those used in the prison cells.
Block F has 44 inmates, 20 of which have conjugal rights they can exercise once every 15 days, for up to four hours.
Cantillo added that many times, the inmates destroy or soil the mattresses because they had some personal conflict with the next inmate to use the room.
“We do all humanly possible to have for them the best conditions, but in the entire prison system there is instability and we do not have sufficient resources,” said the official.