State and prisons, a view from Human Rights

"Turi, Latacunga and Guayaquil, became in this last time, in a perverse view of a society where Edgar Allan Poe, Franz Kafka and Dante's hell fall short before the bloodshed of said prisons", affirmed Gustavo Vega.

23 days after the massacre, the Network of Politics and Human Rights of the University of Azuay held the event "The State and prison policy."

In addition to Gustavo Vega, Rector of the International University of Ecuador, the talk was attended on March 18 by the speakers Silvana Tapia, professor at the University of Azuay and Mauro Cerbino, professor and researcher at FLACSO Ecuador.

The event was inaugurated by Damiano Scotton, promoter of the Human Rights Network, and José Chalco, Dean of the Faculty of Legal Sciences.

The first speaker was Dr. Tapia, who indicated that "the (prison) system as it exists does not work, it must be destroyed and re-created."

Then he stressed that the percentage of overcrowding levels within prisons nationwide is 35%, that is, after reaching their maximum shelter capacity, they are overcrowded.

He explained that this level of overcrowding generates poor sanitation conditions and also makes it difficult to separate those who were locked up for committing crimes of poverty, from more dangerous prisoners, this puts them in contact with criminal networks or gangs and increases the level of future delinquency and recidivism.

Later, Dr. Vega suggested that one of the solutions is for the State to seek a community vision, to form strategic alliances with different sectors of the citizenry such as NGOs or foundations to be able to decide on prison policy.

Finally, Dr. Cerbino commented that first the type of State in which the solution is to be implemented must be identified, since the Ecuadorian State has proven to be an absent State that "the only thing it knows how to do is look the other way" .

“For now, the State is part of the problem and in no way is it seen as something that can solve it. The State is the only one that benefits from the fact that prisons are like this because then they can conceal their interests and this is what has happened for decades with different governments ”, concluded Cerbino.

UDA Correspondent