Attorney General Miriam German Brito wants an answer to how the firearms that caused the death of three persons and ten recently injured at the La Victoria Jail were brought inside the prison. In a press release, the head of the General Penitentiary and Correctional Services Agency (DGSPC), a division of the Attorney General Office, Roberto Hernandez Basilio says an investigation is ongoing.
German Brito has been holding working meetings with Hernandez Basilio and Hilda Patricia Lagombra Polanco, director of Correction and Rehabilitation Centers on the matter. As reported, immediate actions were taken to reduce the likelihood of a repeat of the situation.
Through a press release, German Brito regretted the painful situation the relatives of the dead and wounded are going through. The relatives accuse the jail authorities of letting in the lethal weapons.
At the same time, the Attorney General states that the problems that have accumulated in the prisons for decades require the will of the whole Dominican society, and necessary resources, said Hernández Basilio.
The head of the DGSPC informed the Attorney General that a prisoner who has assumed the greatest responsibility in the brawl will be transferred to another center, while investigations continue into the violent incident that compromised the integrity of the inmates and the guards.
Five of the wounded received bullet wounds, as did the three deceased. Nine of those affected were discharged from the three hospitals that treated them and one remains under observation, all of them in stable condition.
The Attorney General Office reports that after the uprising in the jail, the prison authorities, accompanied by three prosecutors and members of the Police, conducted simultaneous searches in cells 1 and 2, as well as 3 and 4, and seized 23 cell phones, three internet routers and 85 prison and industrial bladed weapons, and RD$119,000 pesos and US$21 from six of the inmates in the area.
“We must recognize that these evils in La Victoria have much to do with a system that historically has had structural deficiencies,” said Hernandez Basilio. He said upwards of 7,200 men are in jail in La Victoria.
He lamented that the replacement jail that was built in Las Parras in the Guerra municipality of Santo Domingo province, has not been habilitated and instead is part of a broader investigation by state prosecutors.
The Las Parras penitentiary, better known as La Nueva Victoria, is in a kind of limbo and unable to function because it is part of the Operation Medusa corruption case, an open judicial investigation. The prosecutors are awaiting the audit of the Chamber of Accounts to continue the prosecution.
Read more in Spanish:
Attorney General Office
N Digital
N Digital
20 January 2022