Attorney General Miriam German removed the La Victoria Jail warden Gilberto Nolasco and all administrative and police officials. She ordered that the Prison Agency’s recently appointed authorities intervene and take direct control of the jail as of 16 September 2020.
The announcement comes after it was known that the assault and subsequent murder of Ruddy Quezada, a Dominican who had won a deal in US jurisdiction for US$14 million in indemnity, was planned from that jail.
Attorney General Germán met with Major General Edward Sánchez González of the Police on the removal of all the Police officers assigned to the jail.
Likewise, recently investigative journalist Nuria Piera presented a report by fellow journalist Eiron Lopez on sales of drugs in the jail with the complicity of the staff.
In a press release, the Attorney General Office indicates that the measure seeks to make the administration of that prison viable while the administrative and technical processes are being developed. In the future, all inmates are to be under the New Penitentiary Model system.
The Attorney General Office indicates that the focus needs to be on correcting irregularities and anomalies detected in the penitentiary, avoiding the occurrence of events that may damage its development, stopping possible violations to the human rights of the inmates and preventing the planning within of criminal actions that may threaten the security of the citizens.
The Attorney General Office said the Prisons Agency now under Colonel Roberto Hernández Basilio has sent a team of social workers to support the inmates during the reorganizing of prison management. The Comedores Económicos, the government meal provider, will be distributing 15,000 rations daily at the facility. Likewise, the supply of food at the jail commissary has been increased and health care measures to reduce the spread of Covid-19 have been reinforced.
Likewise, the Prisons Agency has sent 1,000 new Police and Army officers to guarantee the inmates’ security.
La Victoria houses 7,220 inmates, equivalent to 27.4% of the country’s prisoners. 61% (4,448) are in pretrial detention and 38.4% (2,772) are serving sentences.
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Attorney General Office
Attorney General Office
Attorney General Office
16 September 2020