IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 2 ENGLISH | Page 33

and women and minors, who should receive special attention because of their complex situation,
far from their families (even though some are
products of a difficult family life), are subjected
to rapes and other abuses without distinction. The
percentage of youth in prisons is steadily rising,
and most of them are sentenced for minor misdemeanors. This reveals the frailty and uselessness
of the judicial system. Cuba has approximately
170 prisons: 5 maximum-security installations,
40 normal ones, and 155 more open facilities. Together, they hold more than 60,000 inmates.
The lack of equal opportunities, growing poverty

and other problems like having fewer military
personnel at the youth prison, attending to the
training of prison personnel and the urgent need
to invest in prisons to improve their deplorable
conditions.
The many changes that need to take place concerning the prison system involve the judiciary,
and must be independent, so penitentiaries can
become more efficient and fulfill their true function: reeducation.
The Cuban government has ratified some the
U.N. instruments that regulate different aspects of
penitentiary systems: the Universal Declaration

and social exclusion are the things that cause the
increase in criminal activity and crime rates, a
true reflection of the failure of our governmental
institution’s public policies. Today, places that
were meant to be schools are now prisons, a total
reversal on one of the supposed revolution’s principal objectives: to diminish violence and increase the educational level of our society.
There are still many things left to do, for example,
like eliminate the inefficiency, administrative
corruption and judicial decisions that make many
prisoners remain incarcerated even after having
been officially released, while other spend their
sentences