Latin America’s Prisons: Cries Rise Out of the Pit

The time he spent in Mexico City’s Lecumberri prison, says Colombian poet and novelist Alvaro Mutis, was rather ideal, at least within the “confines of a terrible circumstance.” “We the prisoners were responsible for the management of our own pavilions and there was respect for the rights of the people. We had an excellent arts and crafts school inside prison that worked wonders with many kids who were brought in without any schooling and left prison being accomplished crafts men.”

Those were the days. No longer. Not in Mexico. Not in most of Latin America.

An exploding population and an ever growing number of people incarcerated in drug cases, some guilty and many more innocent, have changed forever the conditions for those who run afoul of legal systems that often fester with abuse. Now, this is what an inmate can expect: The prisons are decrepit, mismanaged and extremely overcrowded. Violence among the prisoners and at the hands of guards is commonplace. Corruption is pervasive among the jailers.

It is from roots like these that bloody riots sprang up over the last year in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.

The protests have been shockingly brutal. In Mexico and Bolivia, prisoners sewed their mouths shut in dramatizing their demands for better conditions. In El Salvador, inmates threatened to hold a “death lottery” among themselves to gain attention. It is not difficult to see why the prisons are exploding. No person, not even the most hardened criminal, should be subjected to living conditions that repel the eye and churn the stomach.

The failure of the penitentiaries is a sad reflection of the crippled criminal justice systems of the region. Peruvian authorities are notorious for the jailing of innocents on flimsy pretexts. Pretrial detainees fill the yards of many jails and are treated as if they have already been convicted. In Honduras, Paraguay and Uruguay, more than 90% of prisoners are held for several years before sentencing, according to human rights organizations.

On the eve of the 21st century, these medieval conditions should not be countenanced. Fair and speedy trials should be mandatory, and the accused, before their trials, should not be locked away with convicted criminals.

The justice systems will be overhauled only when there is wide recognition that adequate quarters, food and fair treatment for captives of government institutions are not privileges but basic rights, and when authorities learn to see mistreatment of suspects and convicts as criminal acts.

Back in the 1970s, Central and South America were mired in military dictatorships, and few believed the condition would ever change. Well, it has. Now, every country in the region except Cuba has a democratically elected government. Worn-out statist economic models have been reformed. Growing market economies are in place. Hyper-inflation is no longer the norm.

The same forces that made possible the political and economic recovery of Latin America should now be set to work to strengthen the third pillar of democracy, the justice system. The shame that stretches from the police station house to the courthouse to the jailhouse can and must be washed away.