Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean

PARAGUAY: Unjustly Imprisoned Inmates Revive Debate on Prison Conditions

Natalia Ruiz Díaz

ASUNCIÓN, Oct 31 2008 (IPS) - An 11-year delay in releasing a prisoner in Paraguay drew attention to the need for a computerised register of inmates, and revived debate on a prison system that continues to be plagued by problems like overcrowding and lack of access to healthcare and food.

Thirty-six-year-old Dionisio Escobar left the Tacumbú National Penitentiary in Asunción on Oct. 9, according to an announcement by Justice and Labour Minister Blas Llano. The minister admitted that a judge had ordered Escobar’s release in 1997. The order was never implemented.

Escobar was illegally imprisoned for an additional 11 years, five months and 22 days in the worst conditions imaginable, without enough food and sleeping on the floor. He hardly received any visits from relatives, and he had no lawyer.

The Directorate General for auditing the performance of the judicial branch said that Escobar was accused of robbery and sent to jail on Jan. 13, 1995. On Apr. 16, 1997, his release was ordered. The justice system notified the prison 12 days later, but the prison took no action.

The head of Tacumbú Penitentiary, Julio Acevedo, found out about Escobar’s situation in a conversation with him during a routine round.

The prison has a population of over 3,000 inmates, more than twice the number it was built to hold.

Llano, who has been justice minister since centre-left President Fernando Lugo took office in August, said that Escobar must receive reparations from the state.

On Oct. 23, another man who had been unjustly imprisoned in the Tacumbú Penitentiary was released. Francisco Sánchez was mistakenly sent to prison, instead of to court, due to a police error after he was arrested on suspicion of theft. He spent three years, four months and 19 days in jail, according to local press reports.

The prison director, Acevedo, said there may be many cases of inmates who have not been released merely because they have no lawyers. He said such irregularities are being investigated, and that those who have been unjustly imprisoned have the right to apply for damages from the state.

Around 80 percent of prisoners in Paraguay’s jails are still awaiting sentencing. Of the current total of just under 6,000 inmates, only 1,721 have received prison sentences.

The Escobar case reopened debate on the appalling conditions in Paraguay’s prisons, where overcrowding and rundown infrastructure are critical problems.

The Paraguayan Institute for Comparative Studies in Criminal and Social Sciences (INECIP) says a computerised register of the prison system is an urgent necessity.

“The Paraguayan state has been incapable of establishing an integrated registration system, linking computer databases from the police, judicial and prison systems,” says an INECIP report.

“This shortcoming contributes to poor performance of the tutelary function over persons deprived of liberty, on several levels,” the study says.

INECIP also expressed concern about different kinds of inmates being housed together in most prisons, such as adolescent offenders and adult criminals, and even women with men. According to INECIP, although they live in separate wings, their presence in common buildings makes it impossible to provide the differential treatment stipulated by law.

Prison food is also inadequate. The budget is insufficient to provide a proper diet for the inmates. In addition, prisons do not keep workable records of reception and distribution of food.

Some prisons have medical staff, but health care is inadequate, and hardly any medicines are provided. HIV-positive inmates and those who have tuberculosis or suffer from mental disabilities or ailments are deprived of the medication and treatment they need.

There are 59 psychiatric patients at the Tacumbú Penitentiary. Forty are hospitalised, most of them aged between 18 and 23. Some have been sentenced, in spite of their psychiatric diagnoses.

According to the prison psychiatrist, Aníbal Garcete, imprisoning mental patients is a violation of their human rights, because they cannot receive adequate treatment in jail.

Llano announced that the new government will take measures to improve the supply of food, medicines, hygiene products and cleaning materials, and launch a health campaign to guarantee proper care for prisoners.

The Justice Ministry has already begun to carry out reforms of the prison system. The first step will be the construction of the Esperanza Industrial Penitentiary, next to Tacumbú, which will have a capacity for 288 inmates who must have a firm court conviction and sentence.

The situation in Paraguay’s jails is no exception in Latin America, where prison over-population exceeds 120 percent in 26 countries, according to the United Nations Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (ILANUD), based in Costa Rica.

Bolivia, for example, has a prison occupation rate of 162 percent, and Brazil’s is 181 percent. In many countries, the majority of prisoners have not yet been sentenced.

Meanwhile, Dionisio Escobar, now surrounded by his family in their humble dwelling in Limpio, 23 kilometres from Asunción, said: “My life after being in prison will be difficult, but I trust in God.”