WUNRN
CUBA - WOMEN IN PRISONS - CALL FOR
SPECIAL LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CASES
- The
life histories of Cuban women in prison for murdering their violent husbands or
boyfriends show the need for reforms of the criminal code to take account of
gender reasons as mitigating factors in sentencing.
Most (63
percent) of the nearly 4,000 Cuban women in prison are serving sentences for
embezzlement and theft.
But “we have inmates who
committed very serious acts related to domestic violence. For instance, most of
the women who committed homicides did so against husbands who abused them or
fathers who raped them as children. These cases should be given different legal
treatment,” said the director of the Havana Women’s Prison, Lieutenant Colonel
Sara Rubio.
“The criminal code does not
differentiate between these kinds of situations,” Rubio told IPS during a tour
of four penitentiary centres for local and foreign correspondents on Tuesday
Apr. 10. This is the first time since 2004 that the authorities have opened the
doors of prisons to the international press.
Prison sentences for crimes
like embezzlement, theft and homicide can range from eight to 30 years.
Rubio, who is in charge of the
largest women’s prison in the country, insisted that “special treatment is
needed for cases associated with gender violence,” a problem for which Cuban
civil society is calling for a gender perspective to be applied more fully in
the country’s laws.
In fact, civil society
organisations and state agencies have been carrying out a campaign since 2007
calling for specific legislation on domestic violence. In 2012 it reached eight
of the country’s 15 provinces.
In addition, the short prison
sentences incurred by offences such as prostitution should be replaced by
non-custodial sentences, Rubio said.
Better known as El Guatao
because of the
On May 1 the government must
present a report on its prisons policy to the Universal Periodic Review of the
United Nations Human Rights Council, which held sessions Apr. 22-May 3 this
year in
International human rights
organisations and domestic dissident groups have criticised
The prison population of this
This figure is lower than in
May 2012, when there were 57,337 inmates, Leyva told IPS.
“Every day, prisoners are
granted early release” from
But an anti-corruption campaign
launched in 2009 may have led to an increase in the prison population.
According to Rubio, 63 percent
of women prisoners in
Rubio directs a
non-conventionally structured prison with some 400 women inmates, aged mostly between
31 and 59. Women tend to commit crimes “at a mature age,” when they are over
30, and recidivism is “only 15 percent,” she said.
Here, the women are not locked
up in cells, but live in dormitories with eight bunk beds each which have
doors, rather than bars. The facility has a theatre, sports areas, televisions,
dining hall, kitchen and classrooms.
Inmates have access to public
phones. They are allowed family visits once a week, and conjugal visits every
21 days.
Lázara López is a single mother
with a 15-year-old daughter and an eight-year-old son. She has served one of
the six years of her sentence for theft in El Guatao.
“I did it for them. Now I
regret it because they really need me at home with them,” she told IPS. “My
daughter has to look after the little one,” the 33-year-old
Women, who are generally
responsible for raising the children and looking after the family, find it hard
to delegate that responsibility to relatives or leave their charges unattended
while they are in prison.
“They are women, just like us,”
prison educator Minisleidy Calderón told IPS. “Sometimes we chat with them to
persuade them to calm down and behave,” said this young woman who teaches 80
inmates. As part of their re-education, most of the women choose to work in
state institutions outside the prison.
The government of former
president Fidel Castro promoted the idea of “turning prisons into schools,” so
that prisoners can continue their formal education, learn a trade or work in
state institutions. Thirty-eight percent of the women at El Guatao are enrolled
in educational courses. They also have access to sporting and cultural
activities and involvement in the community.
There are few women inmates
between the ages of 16 – the age of criminal responsibility in
One of them is 19-year-old
primary school teacher Damayantis Reyes, who is five months pregnant. She is
serving a one-and-a-half year sentence for causing bodily harm.
Pregnant women in prison
receive the same health care they would get outside of jail, and they receive a
special diet. They are allowed to keep their babies with them until the child’s
first birthday.
“The conditions are good and we
are well treated, but we’re never OK. No one wants to be here,” Reyes told IPS.
The father of her unborn baby broke off their relationship when she went to
prison. “I’m going to go back to teaching when I get out of here,” she said.