DR1 Daily News - Dominican Republic

Roberto Santana, executive advisor on Security Policy and the Prison System to the Presidency, has once again issued a stark warning about the fractured control over Dominican prisons, revealing that neither the Attorney General’s Office nor the General Directorate of Prisons holds authority over 19 detention centers currently under the control of the National Police and the Army, as reported in El Nacional.

Speaking on the television program D’Agenda with journalist Héctor Herrera Cabral, Santana explained that 12 of the facilities are operated by the military and seven by the police — including La Victoria, a notorious facility he describes as a police-run detention center.

Santana stressed that the country’s prison system is effectively divided into three separate spheres of power: the Army, the Police, and the Attorney General’s Office. In the facilities run by the...