English translation: Déborah Santana Detail violations of rights against prisoner Nina Droz May 24, 2018 By El Calce Violations of the human rights of Nina Droz Franco inside the prison do not cease, according to the Committee of Friends and Family of Nina Droz Franco, who offered a lush list of such aggravations. "After the events of May 1 of this year, when, on the one hand, we were able to confirm once again - and in the eyes of the country - the trapping pattern of the Puerto Rico Police and, on the other hand, the generation of new arrests to continue the schemes of persecution, the case of Nina Droz Franco acquires greater relevance because it sets a precedent in the new Puerto Rican news and is the most notorious case of violations of the rights of a woman in the federal prison system in Puerto Rico ", The Committee declared today through a press release. The young Nina Droz, admitted to the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Guaynabo since May 2017, continues to suffer persecution, harassment and violation of their rights in said federal prison. "New transfers to the 'hole' (solitary) without justification and without timely disciplinary hearing, sexual harassment, physical integrity and privacy, deprivation of food and hygiene conditions, absence of medical attention, submission to days of probation without adequate justification, and subtraction and mutilation of documents are just some of the samples of the circumstances to which the inmate daily faces ", they emphasized and proceeded to report the examples of persecution and violations of rights to which Nina Droz Franco has been subjected after Hurricane Maria and more recently, as well as circumstances that were not known when the Committee gave its first press conference on February 8 of this year. The Committee also explained that in the prison they are engaging in tactics with the aim of breaking Nina Droz, especially by sending her to the "hole" or SHU and by preventing or hindering her visits from her parents; the SHU as far as torture is concerned by depriving it, among other things, of human contact; and the visits to deprive her of her circle of affections, especially the most important and necessary, those of the family. We must point out that, according to torture experts who work for the UN, solitary confinement for more than 15 days is considered torture and can cause permanent psychological damage. These UN specialists have even requested that solitary confinement be forbidden to prisoners, except in exceptional circumstances and for the shortest possible time; and that it is absolutely forbidden in the case of minors and people with mental conditions. "Let's remember that we are talking about a case of persecution and violations of rights in prison, the isolated case (the only one handled by the federal prosecutor's office around May 1, 2017) of a young woman who has become a scapegoat for the federal authorities in the country intend to give warning to other sectors and instill fear so that Puerto Ricans do not claim rights or exercise their freedom of expression, "they expanded. Details of the violations of rights to Nina Droz Franco after Hurricane Maria, exposed by the Committee of Friends and Family of Nina Droz Franco: After Hurricane Maria - and despite having the MDC with a 500,000-gallon cistern - the penal institution did not provide inmates and inmates, for more than 7 days, with water to wash or to flush toilets, despite heat and unhealthy conditions. To drink? A single bottle of water a day. When the cells were opened, inmates fainted and a small riot was formed that the guards repelled. Hospitalized inmates who were beaten by the guards. During the transfer to Tallahassee, which lasted 9 hours, the inmates-including Droz-were kept handcuffed and handcuffed, and without access to food or sanitary services. During the return trip from Tallahassee, the inmates were kept in the same conditions as for the transfer to Tallahassee: handcuffed and handcuffed, and without access to food or sanitary services, but this time for more than 20 hours. The situation was so untenable that, when they were being transferred by bus from the Luis Muñoz Marín Airport to the MDC, some of the inmates could not resist and had to "urinate on" that vehicle. Precisely during that return from Tallahassee on February 9 of this year, Nina fell and injured her arm, which swelled and for which she was never sought medical attention. In addition, due to unhealthy conditions and humidity in the SHU (Special Housing Unit) -identified also as "the hole" or being "in solitary" -,Nina went on to develop rashes on her face, a condition for which no medical care of any kind was provided. On February 14, Nina's parents try to make the first visit after the 6 months in which she was deprived of that possibility by a punishment imposed by the DHO (Disciplinary Hearing Officer) Víctor Santana on August 12, 2017. Even so , the officials who receive Nina's parents in the MDC try, through all kinds of subterfuge, to prevent Nina from seeing them. An example of this and of mistreatment that, in addition to Nina, is given to her family is the circumstance of the aforementioned visit when a new officer, in charge of the entrance to the MDC, does not let her mother pass because "things sounded " Aurea Franco Diaz, Nina's mother, explained that she had had an operation on the spine and that probably what sounded were the titanium screws that had been placed on her. Vélez indicated that he had to take a letter from the doctor who performed the procedure certifying the operation and the screws. On that occasion, he could not see his daughter, despite having appealed to Lt. Roberto Currás, superior in command, who denied him the possibility of seeing Nina. On the occasion of subsequent visit, Mrs. Franco Díaz took the doctor's letter and Vélez indicated that the letter "did not apply". He passed her through the metal detection machines more than 4 times and Mrs. Franco Díaz, as a mother who wanted to see her daughter, tolerated the abuse. On March 21, 6 weeks after her arrival at the MDC, there was an incident that clearly shows the type of treatment that Nina Droz receives in that federal prison. After bathing, and while changing clothes in her cell, Nina looks at the glass-window of the door and realizes, with astonishment, that the guard Roberto Guzmán is stuck to the glass observing her. Guzmán, realizing that Nina has realized what he has been doing, immediately proceeds to accuse her of having a "Yen" type knife. Nina is subject to search. In the process, Guzmán changes his version and says that they were "two green objects". The registration to Nina, both in her body and in her cell, is negative. However, they send it to the "hollow" (solitary or SHU, in English of Special Housing Unit), where they keep it for 17 days without soap to clean themselves, without clean clothes and without a shower curtain to protect their privacy. When requesting something as insignificant as a deodorant to a guard named Antonio Cesany-recognized among the inmates for their pattern of teasing the women-he ignores the request and does not do anything to facilitate it. To continue the pattern of Nina Droz's violation of rights, MDC officers again committed an illegal practice: the holding of the disciplinary hearing following the application of the punishment for the incident that the hearing is supposed to investigate. The alleged incident of the knives, which occurred on March 21, was seen on April 4 at 10:00 am and after 17 days of the young woman being in solitary. That view is done through "speakerphone" with DHO Víctor Santana, the same one who, in August of 2017, punished her for 6 months without visits or police station (in addition to 23 days in the SHU) for a "little plastic thing" that was not of the young inmate. In this view of April 4, however, no mention is made of the knives and there is talk of a "search" that was never carried out, according to the inmate's own testimony and the two witnesses on her behalf: Giovanni González and his "case" manager ", Vanessa Schoonewolf, who certified that Nina had nothing. Even so, the DHO Santana subjects her to the following punishments: 3 months without visits, 3 months without a police station, 2 months without a computer and without internet access to communicate with her parents or her family and 90 days on probation; punishments that are still in force. The latter (the 90 days of probation) is enormously worrying since MDC officers can use any minimal detail to continue their narrative of inventions with the aim of continuing to punish the young Droz and try to break it. Later, after that disciplinary hearing on April 4, Roberto Guzmán entered Droz's cell and took all of the young woman's documents, including legal documents. This is the second time that a prison officer incurs a theft of Droz Franco documents. The documents, on this occasion, were returned, although mutilated. Daily situations show other nuances of the persecution and harassment suffered by inmate Nina Droz Franco. To the kisses and winks of the officer surnamed Saavedra during the first months of his imprisonment and the flirting actions of the guard Roberto Guzmán more recently, the gesture of the guard M. Velázquez is added, who once told him that he wanted to spit on her food and that she was there "for asshole". Since then, Droz Franco fears that his food is "altered" in this accessible way. Currently, Nina's parents and no one else can visit her for the new punishment imposed on April 4, which is supposed to end in two months on July 3. Also, they pointed out, the correspondence received by the inmate comes to him mutilated in different ways: at the beginning the correspondence was opened and hit, since his return to Puerto Rico the prison began a new modality of making a cut to both the correspondence that Nina sends him to his parents as to the one he receives from them. The persecution and violations of Nina Droz's rights began as soon as she was admitted to the DMC in May 2017 and continue to increase, they indicated. "From the Committee of Friends and Family of Nina Droz Franco, the Human Rights Committee of Puerto Rico and other social sectors, religious, human rights, among others we remain vigilant and pending their conditions of confinement, denouncing the violation of their human rights and the human rights of persons deprived of liberty in general, "the press release said. The sentencing reading view is scheduled for May 31, 2018 at 2:00 pm in the Federal Court, in Chardón Street, Hato Rey. The Committee, they said, will be present inside and outside the Court room to learn about the procedures and provide all the support that Nina and her family need. "We invite all people to be present at the picket in front of the federal court from 1:30 p.m. in support of comrade Nina Droz Franco."