"It is devastating": the state of human rights in the prison in which "El Chapo" Guzmán would surrender

US media say judge Brian Cogan could send Mexican drug dealer Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera to serve a life sentence in prison ADX Florence, an American prison in the state of Colorado that violates all international human rights laws because of its harsh conditions of isolation.

Amnesty International published a report in 2014 describing the circumstances in which detainees held in what they call "living"Alcatraz of the Rocky Mountains"considered the safest prison in the United States.

The information contained in this study was gathered through an Amnesty visit and information disclosed by lawyers who have clients inside the prison. However, the organization has made it clear that it is difficult to obtain data on the living conditions of prisoners.

The last time Amnesty visited the prison, it was in 2001 and since then, they have rejected all their requests. From that moment, the organization badured, The conditions of isolation have intensified over the years.

The paper explores the physical and psychological impacts that prisoners are exposed to because of their 22 hours a day in their cells.

Some US experts on penitentiary issues agree that this maximum security prison is expensive, ineffective and inhumane.

Erika Guevara Rosas, a lawyer specializing in human rights, said that "the devastating impact that long periods of isolation can have on the mental and physical well-being of inmates can only be overestimated ".

According to the report, symptoms resulting from being kept in isolation for long periods include anxiety, depression, insomnia, hypertension, extreme paranoia, distortion of perception and psychosis

Since its creation in 1994, At least two inmates committed suicide. One case occurred in 2013, when a prisoner incarcerated for 10 years decided to commit suicide. According to the report, a few days before his death, he had displayed psychological symptoms, but had been completely ignored.

According to Guevara, "the US government must ensure that the solitary confinement regime is used only as a last resort, in exceptional circumstances, and that it should never be used during the same period of time. a prolonged or indefinite period ".

The United States Government plans to build a prison in Illinois under the same system as ADX.

Meals slide through small holes in the doors and beds are concrete slabs lined with a thin mattress covered with two blankets. Each cell has a shower, toilet, stool and TV with 60 channels, including information and educational programs.

They can only leave the places of internment for exercise, social visits, meetings with their lawyers or medical consultations. Although in the latter case, it is requested that the majority be via remote control.

The cells have a double door, a sliding door and a concrete door. In the middle, there is only one kind of lobby.

Prisoners must spend at least 12 months in critical conditions of isolation before being able to aim for a reduction in restrictions. The only contact they have with a human being is when they exercise or the guards escort him to meet their visitors.

They are allowed 10 hours of exercise one week divided into 2-hour intervals for 5 days. They can do it only in a closed room or in a cage in the open air. In the first they have a bar ride up and in the second they have nothing.

This activity is the only opportunity they have to live with other prisoners who practice in other cages, which usually happens about twice a week. According to the report, some are so depressed that they prefer to stay in their cell rather than doing exercise.

In publishing its report in 2001, Amnesty noted the existence of some group activities at the time, but two murders committed in 2005 completely canceled this option. Nevertheless, they insist that the solution is not total containment.

They are allowed to read newspapers, books and write correspondence. A former prison director revealed that Ted Kaczynski (The Unabomber) spent most of his time on these activities. However, not everyone can read.

All visits take place in a contactless environment, behind a thick plexiglbad screen. They can only receive family members five times a month and are still chained. You can not spend the limit of 7 hours per month of visits.

All the conditions described above do not apply in the same way to those included in the "H" module, a special security unit designed to strictly limit all communications with the outside world.

At the end of the report, the organization made the following recommendations:

"This little hole has become my world, my dining room, my reading and writing area, where I sleep, walk, urinate and defecate, I live practically in a bathroom and this concept does not make me feel better. has never left for 10 years, writes the prisoner Mahmud Abouhalima in 2005.