Government of Ecuador will grant 1,800 prison pardons

Some 1,800 prison pardons will be granted by the Ecuadorian government until the end of July, President Guillermo Lasso reported on Monday at a ceremony in which he presented 1,400 aspiring prison guides and inspectors. This is one of the actions arranged by his administration for the transformation of the social rehabilitation system.

These “widespread pardons” are for minor crimes so that those deprived of liberty “are not captured by the mafias,” said the president, who exempted from these benefits “those who have murdered a person or injured someone.” . So far, 800 people have been favored “who have left thanks to these pardons and by the end of the month we hope to reach 1,800,” he added.

With the pardon policy, the percentage of prison overcrowding has decreased from 26.75% in 2021 to 8% in 2022, stated at the same event the general director of the National Service for Comprehensive Care for Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders ( SNAI), Pablo Ramírez. By December of this year, 3,000 reprieves are expected to be completed to reduce overcrowding to zero percent, he said.

The presentation of 1,400 applicants for prison security agents is another action of the strategic plan for the transformation of the social rehabilitation system, which will protect the rights of those deprived of liberty, but will double the surveillance, said President Lasso. He added that 1,000 more agents will be added next year to meet international prison control standards. Applicants who begin the training process will join the surveillance in November 2022.

For his part, the director of the penitentiary system affirmed that other pillars for changing the prison model in Ecuador involve institutional restructuring, the professionalization of the prison security body, the repowering of infrastructure, the construction of a pacification process within rehabilitation centers, the design of a penitentiary public policy and technological equipment. On this last point, purchase processes have been carried out for some 30 million dollars, out of an assigned budget of 125 million dollars until 2025, he said.

For the international consultant on security issues, Colonel Mario Pazmiño, the granting of pardons does not contribute to solving the insecurity situation in the country, because “the training for social reintegration” of those deprived of liberty has not been carried out, he assured. in dialogue with Associated Press.

The expert also did not consider that the release of 1,800 prisoners reduces the violence inside the prisons and described the release of these people as “a blow to society” for “lightening the load” in the prisons.

“With these pardons, the only thing that will generate is that they return to the same penitentiary center, while society will see that the more violence there is, the government continues to remove people who were serving a sentence”, which can affect the levels of governability, said.

In his opinion, the purification work should be done through the justice system, since there are 16,000 people in prisons that do not have a final sentence.

Ecuador faced in 2021 one of the deepest crises in its prison system, with numerous violent episodes between criminal gangs that left hundreds of prisoners dead and before which the government received calls for attention from international organizations that Actions were urged to stop the escalation of the massacres in the detention centers.

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