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48.The Emboscada Prison, which has a capacity for 132 persons housed in three-person cells, will soon become operational. At that
time, sentenced convicts currently held at the Tacumbú National Prison will be transferred to Emboscada.
49.In 2009, all the country’s prisons were refurbished. Improvements were made to the ex sótano wing, the D wing and the
cuadrulátero sector of Tacumbú National Prison. These improvements are described in the present report.
50.The new Pedro Juan Caballero Regional Prison has been outfitted as discussed in paragraph 187 of the Subcommittee’s report.
The new prison is located on an 11-hectare plot and comprises a central facility and three wings with 103 cells having a capacity for
approximately 300 inmates (see annex 1: CD Video showing transfer of inmates to Pedro Juan Caballero).
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51.Prisoners are separated into sectors and wings. Female inmates are housed in the front part of the facility and are separated from
male inmates by a physical structure. Adolescents deprived of their liberty in Pedro Juan Caballero are housed in a separate wing
from adult inmates. Attention is drawn to the fact that the two adolescents currently being held in this prison will be transferred to a
nearby educational facility in Concepción. The new prison centre offers improved conditions in terms of space and infrastructure.
52.As an annex to the present report, a DVD is being submitted with footage of the new prison before and after its inauguration,
along with photographs depicting other improvements.
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53.The Deputy Minister of Justice and Human Rights, by means of resolution No. 2 of 11 January 2010, has required that all new
event registers and logs and all registers of visits to prisons and women’s correctional facilities under the authority of the Ministry of
Justice and Labour should be numbered and signed by the secretariat of the Directorate-General of Prison Establishments.
54.Between Monday, 17 August 2009 and the end of that month, a general census was taken of inmates at all prisons in Paraguay.
55.The objective of this census was to collect data on the country’s prisons that could then be used as a source of information for
plans and projects aimed at a comprehensive reform of the prison system. The Ministry of Justice and Labour now has a clear picture
of the characteristics of the persons being held in custody, including their socio-cultural situation, personal data and judicial status. The
following data are provided in the annexes to this document: total number of prisoners by age bracket, broken down by prison facility
and gender; total number of prisoners by marital status, broken down by prison facility and gender; total number of prisoners by
nationality; total number of prisoners by educational level; grade or course completed, by gender and five-year age group;
educational level by the highest stage, grade or course successfully completed; percentage of prisoners who would like to receive job
training upon release, by gender and five-year age group; number of persons suffering from some type of contagious disease; number
of persons receiving medical treatment, by gender and five-year age group; percentage of persons with identification documents;
number of persons who are working within the prison; number of inmates who receive assistance from relatives and/or third parties,
by gender and five-year age group; number of inmates who receive visits, by gender and five-year age group; number of inmates with
minor children; number of inmates according to legal status of housing previously occupied by them or currently occupied by their
family, by five-year age group; number of inmates who own their home and have or do not have minor children, broken down by
highest grade/course successfully completed; and number of repeat offenders, by five-year age group.
56.This project is being carried out with funds provided by the Spanish International Agency for Development (AECID); technical
assistance from the Directorate-General of Statistics and Censuses; the help of more than 200 students from the Faculty of Law and
Social Sciences of the National University at Asunción and its affiliates, who gathered data from every prison in Paraguay;
cooperation from the Identification Department of the National Police, which, concurrently with the census, collected data on inmates
using the same procedure as that used for issuing an identification document to any citizen in the country; and assistance from the
judicial branch, which has pledged to provide all procedural data relating to the criminal cases in which these persons are implicated.
The Government is currently in the process of making percentage calculations on the basis of the data collected.
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57.By means of resolution No. 218/09 of 23 March 2009, the Ministry of Justice and Labour established a special commission for
following up and implementing the observations and recommendations of the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture. The
commission is composed of senior officials from the Ministry of Justice and Labour. It has verified, in situ, the comments made by the
Subcommittee and has submitted its report to the Minister of Justice and Labour.
58.The report submitted by this special commission focuses on three main areas: corruption, infrastructure and human rights. The
commission carried out its field work in the Tacumbú National Prison and the Pedro Juan Caballero Regional Prison. It then
formulated conclusions and proposals for action, which were incorporated into the final report of the Subcommittee on the Prevention
of Torture.
59.In the area of corruption, the proposed measures include: establishing a policy for re-engineering the prison administration system
and a new organizational structure (organization chart and handbook of responsibilities); formulating job description profiles in the
prison system; designing, proposing and implementing a selection process for the prison service; designing, proposing and
implementing a promotion process for the prison service; designing and implementing a plan for re-engineering these processes;
prohibiting staff from carrying money within prison premises and overseeing enforcement of the ban; making the most senior authority
responsible for monitoring the assignment of cells and beds in order to ensure that each prisoner has a decent place to sleep without