eng - World Organisation Against Torture

freely with convicted adult prisoners. Inmany of the jails, the children were made toperform massages on police officers andadult inmates in exchange for small amountof money or food. In addition, children areoften beaten and abused by senior prisoners,called the “Mayors” or the trustees. Thechildren are repeatedly sexually abused,forced to do sex acts on the older prisonersand they are raped. Not to cooperate with thewishes of the senior prisoners or to complainwould be a reason for severe beatings or evenmurder. The right of the children to betreated in a manner conducive to their rehabilitationis denied in all cases. None ofthe children were provided with adequate exercise,and no attempt has been made to providethem healthy mental stimulation orrehabilitation.Sanitary conditions vary from jail to jail. Insome, like the Tarlac Provincial Jail, conditionsappeared acceptable, while at theAngeles City District Jail and the SanFernando City Jail, both in PampangaProvince, the conditions posed a serioushealth risk to prisoners, including the childdetainees, and detention in these two facilitiesamount to cruel, inhuman and degradingtreatment. In many of the jails visited byPREDA, the children were made to providetheir own bedclothes, clothing and sanitaryitems. In some of the jails, the children weremade to sleep on the bare concrete floors oron very uncomfortable benches. In most ofthe cases documented, the children were initiallydetained at police stations and wereforced to provide for their own food often forweeks before their eventual transfer to a jailfacility.The following paragraph further gives a descriptionof the general conditions in five ofthe city and provincial jails visited byPREDA:Angeles City District Jail: The children aredetained in a small, unventilated, concretecell measuring approximately 3x7 meters.The cell lacks a window and the childrenhave only recently been given access toan electric fan. There is a concrete cubicle/toiletin the corner of the cell. The cellis located in a block containing over a hundredconvicted adult prisoners. Prisoners ofall ages mix freely throughout the block. Thesame cell is always used to house male children.Reports from adult inmates indicatethat the cell was used to contain up to 15children. The jail does not supply any beddingor basic sanitary items. The children arenot given any change of clothes and com-44