Latin American regional penal expert Roberto Santana says it will take the Abinader administration around three years to move inmates at old model jails to new model jails. He says there are 22 new model jails in the country, but another 18 jails still operate in the traditional jail model. These include the infamous La Victoria, Azua and El Seibo jails.
The good news is that the new government is working on this. Santana himself has been named honorary advisor to supervise the process. Santana was the creator of the new penitentiary model. His local success led him to be hired abroad to install similar systems in other Latin American countries.
In an interview last night on Esta Noche con Mariasela, Santana explained that specialized trained staff makes the difference between the two jail systems. The staff has been shown not to fail prey to corruption and thus cell phone use is not a problem in the new model. In the traditional model, corruption among police and military custodies makes it possible for inmates to keep their cell phones and all sorts of weapons.
The Abinader administration accelerated the reform process after it was known that the high-profile murder of Ruddy Quezada, a man who had wrongfully served 24 years in jail in the US and won a US$14 million settlement, was orchestrated from the La Victoria Jail. Likewise, action was taken after investigative journalist Nuria Piera aired videos carried out by journalist Eiron Lopez showing details of the mafias operating inside La Victoria. La Victoria is the largest jail in the Dominican Republic. It was built for 2,000 inmates and houses around 8,000.
The past authorities built a modern version of the large jail (La Nueva Victoria) with capacity to house 8,000 inmates. But Santana says the design is contrary to all norms for modern jails. The Nueva Victoria jail is being broken down into eight separate jails with capacity each for 1,000 inmates. While inaugurated by then President Danilo Medina and then Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez before leaving government, the jail does not have potable water, electricity service and trained staff. Santana says it will be another six months before the first groups of inmates can be transferred to La Nueva Victoria jails.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Miriam Germán ordered the removal of all staff at the old La Victoria Jail. The new staff told inmates they would need to hand in their arsenal of weapons. Videos that circulated over the weekend showing what the inmates had on them are impressive.
The call for inmates to turn in all cell phones and weapons resulted in a display of knives and sharp instruments of every shape and size, as well as hundreds and hundreds of cell phones, together with bottles of “home-brewed” potions.
The new director general of the Prisons Agency, Roberto Hernandez Basilio, told reporters that this voluntary surrendering of weapons and cell phones was a sign that the inmates were willing to cooperate with the program of prison reform.
He went on to say that if you were to visit the jail today, you would find a clean place, with no refuse and no dirty waters. The entire facility has been sanitized with the help of the local town government.
A standby generator was added to ensure sufficient lighting. There were new pots and pans in the kitchen, new stoves, too. The mobile units of the government’s Economic Kitchens are serving more than 10,000 meals a day, which is 7,500 more than before. The Prison director said that the food consumed at the La Victoria now comes from the same suppliers that deliver the food to the New Model Penitentiary units around the country.
The director of the National Police also changed all of the personnel that had been working at the prison. Hernandez Basilio said that there will be some incentives for the police that serve at the prison to improve their quality of life.
In the middle of last week units of the Armed Forces and the National Police took total control of the prison, infamous for its internal violence and precarious living conditions. A series of controls were put into place for visitors, and the entire staff was replaced. As Hernandez Basilio told the reporters, the “idea is to have total and complete control over everything.”
Follow the story in Spanish:
Esta Noche con Mariasela (minute 5)
Listin Diario
El Nuevo Diario
Listin Diario
22 September 2020