They share cells with bunk beds stacked three high. A typical breakfast, sugar water and bread. Contagious diseases like tuberculosis are not always treated. Hygiene is poor.
Potable water is rare.
There are a lot of contagious diseases,'' said Elizardo Sanchez, a prominent dissident who tracks the situation of political prisoners as director the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation. Sanchez told The Associated Press in an interview Monday. And for those accused of political crimes, it may be even worse. According to Sanchez, they are routinely confined to their cells when common criminals are allowed out to do things like join outdoor work crews. On a dining room wall in his home, Sanchez has a map of Cuba with color-coded dots and squares to indicate what he says are some 300 prisons and work camps across the island.