The most common disciplinary sanction employed by the penal authorities for the 20,000 inmates surveyed in 42 prisons, of which 22 are the traditional model, is solitary confinement, which occurs in 60.2% of the cases. This is followed by physical punishment, which occurs in 28.1% of the cases. The information is contained in the Second National Penitentiary Census, presented yesterday by the Institutionalism and Justice Foundation (Finjus) and the National Public Defense Office. The report says that physical punishment has fallen by 12.8% when compared to the 2006 census, where the inmates told researchers that they received this sort of punishment in 40.9% of the cases.
At the same time, according to Diario Libre, transfers to other penal institutions were reduced by 5.7% in 2011, compared to the 2006 census, when 14% was reported. In contrast with 2006, when solitary confinement was used in 48.8% of cases, the new study shows an 11.4% increase, with 60.2%. On the question of the illegal disciplinary use of physical punishment (beatings) in the traditional penal institutions, a greater frequency was reported at the La Victoria National Penitentiary, with 41.9%, followed by Najayo with 17.7%, El Seibo with 4.2%, and Azua with 4%.
“This is what determines the need to continue with the educational policies of guidance and orientation for the police and the prison guards who are responsible for security at these institutions, with the goal of them having the intellectual facilities needed to know how to handle the conflicts that might occur with the inmates,” says the study.