Latin America's Prisons: A Ticking Time Bomb

 
"Latin America's jails are a time bomb," warns Elías Carranza, director of the United Nations Latin American Institute for Crime Prevention and the Treatment of Offenders (ILANUD). "Overcrowding is the main factor in an extremely serious crisis."

Judged by the condition of prisons and control of violent crime, Latin America's judicial systems, a crucial measure of democracy, fare poorly. "As long as overpopulation and crowding continue, all other efforts to improve the prisons are useless," Carranza states. These problems have worsened over the last 10 years in much of Latin America and the Caribbean. In Argentina and Colombia, for example, the prison population rose by an average of 50% from 1990 to 2000. In Costa Rica, the number of people incarcerated doubled from 3,200 in 1992 to more than 6,000 in 1999.

According to Colombia's national penitentiary institute, that country's jails can accommodate 34,062 prisoners. In fact, they hold 46,930, an overpopulation of 38%. Bogotá's Modelo Prison currently has 5,000 inmates, despite being designed for less than half this amount. With the exception of the maximum security, psychiatric and old age wings, between 800 and 1,200 inmates are crowded into every part of the prison.

Despite the efforts of some governments, Latin America's prison system is collapsing. "Bolivia has overcrowding of 162%; Brazil, 181%; and the Dominican Republic, 156%," Carranza says. "The country with the largest prison population is Brazil, with 194,074 prisoners, followed by Mexico, with 144,261."

"Prison overcrowding of 120% or more is considered critical, and 26 Latin American countries have overpopulation rates that exceed this. This phenomenon affects all aspects of the systems functioning and contributes to serious violations of the human rights of those deprived of their freedom," he points out. The problems range from a scarcity of food to poor medical and judicial attention.

Carranza believes that the situation in Latin America's jails is exacerbated by a shortage of prison guards. Honduran prisons have an average of one guard for every 46.3 inmates. The ratio is 17.4 in the Dominican Republic, 9 in Bolivia and Nicaragua, 8.2 in Peru and 7 in Colombia.

"Building more jails will not solve the problem if we do not address the roots of the violence that leads to an increase in crime and, as a result, the number of people sent to prison," Carranza argues.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) reports that Latin America has one of the highest crime rates in the world. The problem is attributed to governments' failure to devote resources to and implement innovative policies to prevent and control crime. Among the steps the IDB recommends to combat the rising tide of criminality in Latin America are attention to childhood development and family life, the creation of community-based crime prevention groups, citizen participation in security issues and improved economic opportunities.

Carranza adds his own recommendation, advising governments to limit the prison population to violent criminals. He also urges steps to make penal policy more compatible with social policy.

The challenge will be convincing Latin American governments to adopt these measures. In the meantime, the time bomb is ticking.

For more information, see: www.ilanud.org.cr