People's Daily Online, 22 May 2007
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa launched a prison reform plan on Monday to reduce the number of prisoners and improve general conditions.
During a visit to the Litoral Penitentiary in Guayaquil, in western Ecuador, Correa said the program is studying how to repatriate 400 Colombian prisoners.
On his weekly radio show on Saturday he said Ecuador will "set up jails which do not have a single prisoner without a sentence."
The government plans to sign agreements with law faculties to hire more lawyers and public defense counsels. The Supreme Court will also finance new criminal courts.
Ecuador has 11,000 prisoners being held without trial.
"Our system is not a rehabilitation system, but a road to ruin where prisoners come out with doctorates in crime having perfected their criminality," the president said.
The new jail structure will separate criminals based on their dangerousness, officials said.
Correa will also set up a special commission to investigate the murder of Litoral Penitentiary director Soledad Rodriguez, apparently by criminals from the jail.
Seems to make sense that this prison reform would likely be coordinated in some way with other countries, like Venezuela and Cuba and Bolivia.
ReplyDeleteAnything would be better than following the yanqui model.