After the riot in La Victoria prison which left one inmate dead and eight injured, the Attorney General of the National District, Guillermo Moreno Garcia, visited the prison and told the news media that the authorities have no real control over the movements and actions of the prisoners inside. The Chief of the National Police, Major General Camilo Antonio Nazir Tejada, said through official Police spokesman Juan Ramon de la Cruz Martinez that although the guards have absolute control over the exterior perimeter of the jail, it is true that inside the prisoners are the ones who rule.
Colonel de la Cruz Martinez told the news media that due to the destruction of the walls separating cells during prison riots over the last two years, La Victoria has been turned into a “warehouse” instead of a prison. He assured, however, that the Police and Armed Forces maintain strict control over the outer perimeter of the structure, making any mass escape virtually impossible.
The authorities at the prison have begun to repair physical damage done to the jail, and the police and judicial authorities are working to classify prisoners in order to transfer some and reduce the overpopulation at the prison.
The head prosecutor of the Santo Domingo Court of Appeals, Dr. Amado Cedano Santana, has also announced a plan to speed up the judicial processes of those inmates whose cases have not come to trial. Such prisoners form the majority of those incarcerated in the country’s jails.