During their imprisonment, the Puerto Rican political prisoners have been the objects of cruel treatment and degrading and inhumane conditions. This is in direct violation of international norms I which prohibit discriminatory treatment of prisoners by prison personnel based on their political beliefs or opinions. [United Nations' Minimum Uniform Rules on the Treatment of Prisoners (UNSMRTP), Rule A 1 6 (1 ).]

Federal regulations stipulate that prisoners should be put in prisons as close as possible to their homes and families. Nevertheless the Puerto Rican political prisoners have been kept far from their families and communities in the United States and/or Puerto Rico. For example, all those arrested on August 30, 1985 in Puerto Rico have had to serve their sentences in the United States despite the existence of a federal prison in Puerto Rico. Adolfo Matos, a former Political Prisoner, was assigned to a prison in Southern California even though there is a prison very close to where his family lives in New York. Elizam Escobar, a former Political Prisoner, requested a transfer to a prison near to New York to be closer to his son who lives in New York City. Although hundreds of prisoners have been assigned to prisons in the New York area, Elizam has been denied a transfer on the grounds of overcrowding. Further, the political prisoners have been moved around continually to different maximum security prisons without prior warning to their families and/or lawyers. Some of the prisoners have been attacked sexually. For example, Alejandrina Torres,a former Political Prisoner, was attacked by personnel in three different prisons. The first assault took place when she was locked in a men's unit, permitting the men to exhibit themselves in front of her. In a second incident a male lieu- tenant forced her to put her head between his knees and observed while female guards tore off her clothes and left her naked. The authorities respond- ed to complaints by putting Alejandrina in solitary confinement, prohibiting her to call her family and lawyer to denounce the abuses. She was penalized for violating prison rules, and a secret letter was written to a judge assigned to her case giving a false version of the events. In another prison female guards held her while a male guard inserted his fingers in her vagina and her anus during a "search”. The warden who ordered the search admitted later that he did not suspect Alejandrina of having contraband, and that the search was in violation of prison rules.

Even though U.S. law stipulates that prisoners should receive medical service equal to that of the standards available to the general community, the Puerto Rican political prisoners have been denied adequate medical attention.

Some of the prisoners have been locked in an underground prison with the goal of destroying them physically, psychologically, and politically. For example, Oscar Lopez who was in a maximum security prison in Marion, IL, wrote in 1993: “I am enclosed in a cell that is 8 feet wide by 9 feet long on an average of 22 hours each day. Today while I write this letter I have been 36 hours without going out and tomorrow if they 1 do not take us out it will have three days without moving from this same space. In this little space I have to do everything. From eating my meals to taking care of my needs. So it is my dining room and latrine at the same time. My bed is a slab of cement. And the whole cell is painted the same dead yellow color. From an aesthetic point of view it is as attractive as a jail for zoo animals.”

In their 1987 report, the organization Amnesty International condemned the conditions at Marion saying:

In Marion, violations of the Minimum Standard Rules [of the United Nations for the treatment of prisoners] are common...There is almost no rule in the Minimum Standard Rules that is not broken in one form or another...

The 1990 report by the House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Administration of Justice expresses “concern[...] about the amount of time that the prisoners spend in their cells in rel- ative isolation and the limited opportunities for productive activity and recreation available in a highly controlled environment." And the necessity to "continue developing a more humane focus for the imprisonment of prisoners in a maximum security prison." Oscar Lopez was held at ADX Florence, Colorado, where sleep deprivation techniques and isolation are common practice. After two years in Florence he was transferred back to Marion, even though the jail authorities had recommended transferring him to a federal prison of his choice

From 1986 to 1988 Alejandrina Torres was put in a Maximum Security Unit for women in Lexington, KY. Acknowledging the ideological character of the assignment to this unit, a federal judge stated in Baraldini v Meese:

One thing is to place persons under greater security because they have histories of escape attempts and pose special risks for our correctional facilities. But con- signing anyone to a high security unit for past political associations which they will never shed unless forced to renounce them is a dangerous mission for this country's prison system to continue.

Amnesty International concluded in 1988 that the conditions and diet in this unit were "deliberately and gratuitously oppressive." The UNSMRTP states clearly that prisoners should be allowed to communicate with their family and friends, including visits, and that "prison personnel should be responsible for assuring and improving [the relations of] prisoners" with their families. Federal regulations and the U.S. Prison Board Rules repeat the same thing (28 CFR Sec.540.40). Nevertheless Oscar Lopez Rivera was not permitted any visit that involved physical contact. Some of the prisoners have to submit to a search before and after visits by their families even though they only see them through a glass window and speak to them by telephone. Some of the prisoners are restricted to visits by their immediate family members. While Alejandrina Torres was in Lexington her son-in-law and grandchildren were not included in this definition of immediate family used by the prison authorities. Carlos Alberto Torres, Ida Luz Rodriguez and Alejandrina Torres have suffered through periods from months to years where communication with anyone outside of their immediate family has been prohibited. Many requests for visits by different friends have been denied and political literature has been censored.

In the United States common prisoners are allowed to visit an immediate family member who is dying or to attend his or her funeral. This gesture of decency has been denied the Puerto Rican political prisoners. When Carmen Valentin’s, a former Political Prisoner, father died, she was not allowed to attend the funeral, even though her family was willing to pay all the expenses of the trip. Ricardo Jimenez’s, a former Political Prisoner, mother died without having seen him after having endured cancer for two years which prevented her from visiting him in prison. Elizam Escobar could not visit his father while he was sick nor was he allowed to attend his funeral.