Posted on 04/27/2020 2:20:28 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Latin America has some of the most overcrowded jails in the world. With prisoners crammed into tiny cells by the dozen, social distancing is impossible and poor medical facilities mean any outbreak of coronavirus would spread like wildfire.
The United Nations has urged governments to do more to protect inmates and has suggested the most vulnerable be temporarily released to ease overcrowding.
Chile, Colombia and Nicaragua have announced they will move thousands of prisoners into house arrest with priority given to the elderly, pregnant women and those with underlying conditions. Brazil has already started moving inmates over 60 into house arrest and Peru says it plans to give vulnerable inmates an amnesty.
But the country with the second-highest per capita prison population after the US has not taken yet taken any such steps. El Salvador has been grappling with gang violence for decades and its prisons are bursting at the seams.
Photographer Tariq Zaidi spent two years documenting conditions in El Salvador's jails before the coronavirus outbreak spread to the Central American nation. He gained access to six prisons as well as two police holding cells for a rare look inside the Central American nation's penal institutions.
As well as one of the largest per capita prison populations, El Salvador has one of the highest per capita murder rates in the world.
But that rate has been going down from its height of 17.6 murders per day in 2015 to an average of 3.6 homicides a day in October 2019 and again to 2.1 in March 2020.
President Nayib Bukele, who took office in June 2019, claims much of the credit for that drop.
His zero-tolerance policy towards gang violence also extends to the country's prisons.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
BBC, here’s a thought: stick to reporting the news idiocy in your own country and refrain from interfering with the affairs of other countries, kkthx. /s
Wiping out a few hundred thousand gang members would be a net positive for El Salvador. Better than their usual solution, which is exporting them to the USA.
BBC always fighting for the murderous criminal element at home and abroad.
Ive been there. You have to see it to believe it. But it aint this bad, this is probably the end of f the cell and all the guests have come to see whats going on. Or this is the side of the cell where the fresh air is.
Nature or nurture?
Where the sneaker/shoes are hanging in the fresh air?
;)
I went on a mission Trip in 2005 as I was starting my Family Practice Residency and we visited prisons and orphanages all across San Salvador and Honduras. In one we had a grenade go off in a cell while we were there. I got to play trauma triage when the guards heard I was the only doctor within 20 miles.
LOL. Fresh air is a pretty precious commodity in there.
I remember hearing the bomb go off and watching the smoke billow over the wall (homemade grenade, fortunately) and watching the guard in front of me start shooting his rifle down his line of fire and thinking, This is turning into an interesting day.
We visited one prison that was very interesting. It was chock full of teenage prostitutes who had gotten pregnant. It was actually the nicest one, lots of room, no real cells just dorm rooms, big courtyards with trees and picnic benches. You could easily confuse it for a Bible Camp in the states.
Looks like the prison guards were already wearing the recommended masks for Coronavirus.
Also, if Elsalvador would spend as much time making masks as they do tattoos, they wouldn’t have to worry about the virus spreading.
Don’t commit any crimes and you won’t end up in jail.
Ive spent a number of years in a cube-farm office, this doesnt impress me.
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