Prisons in Ecuador are ‘punishment warehouses’ rather than rehabilitation centers

First modification: 07/30/2022 – 22:24

If the government does not reduce overcrowding and regain control of prisons, these horrific bloodbaths will continue, warns the human rights organization Human Rights Watch.

“Overcrowding and lack of state control in prisons in Ecuador have contributed to these rates of violence,” explained Tamara Taraciuk Broner, interim director for the Americas. These penitentiary centers “are controlled by criminal gangs that extort money from prisoners to preserve their integrity and have access to basic necessities,” she added.

Although it is a structural problem, the number of massacres and deaths in recent months is alarming according to Broner, who gives as an example the case of a massacre in a prison in Guayaquil last November with more than 60 deaths.

“Through videos, photographs and interviews, we were able to determine that, although there was evidence of shooting and violence that had been occurring inside the prison, it took the authorities more than eight hours to enter the prison” to regain control.

According to an official from the Ecuadorian Ombudsman’s Office, among the victims of the November massacre were 13 people in pretrial detention, six detainees who had appeals pending, and two people who were waiting to receive a written release order. .

Since 2021, more than 350 detainees have died and dozens have been injured in the seven massacres in the Guayaquil, Latacunga, Santo Domingo and Cuenca prisons.

In the most recent, which occurred on July 18 in the Santo Domingo prison, 12 detainees died. As of mid-July, the authorities had not convicted anyone for these massacres.

The organization highlights the lack of or poorly trained prison staff in addition to overcrowding, which, according to HRW, could be due to the excessive use of preventive detention. Some centers house twice as many people as their official capacity.

The Lasso government created a commission that established a series of recommendations to fight overcrowding, but Tamara Taraciuk Broner deplores that it has not been implemented.

As a study published in June by this commission indicates, prisons in Ecuador are “punishment warehouses” rather than rehabilitation centers.

(with AFP)