During the weekly press conference on Monday, 18 March 2024, President Luis Abinader said that the Las Parras jail built to replace the La Victoria Jail is far from being able to open. The jail was built to relocate the inmates in the congested La Victoria Jail.
Former Attorney General Jean Alain Rodriguez was responsible for the construction of Las Parras, using fine money received from Brazil’s Odebrecht construction firm. Past President Danilo Medina had delivered the jail supposedly ready to house the inmates on 10 August 2020.
Yet President Abinader says the jail needs RD$1.6 billion and at least another year of construction to be ready to open. The funds in part will be used to remedy drainage as the jail was built in a swamp area.
La Victoria Jail made headlines again on Monday, 18 March when a fire broke out in one of the inmate areas.
Three inmates died from inhalation of smoke in the fire. Of the three one was reported dead after he was taken to the Ney Arias Lora hospital, two others died at the La Victoria jail clinic.
At least six inmates at the La Victoria jail were hospitalized from burns and intoxication after the fire broke out at the over-congested jail. Preliminary reports are that the fire was caused by an electricity short circuit in one of the cells.
The three inmates would have died, not from burns, but from smoke intoxication, said Dr. Eddy Bruno Vizcaino of the Ney Arias Lora hospital burn center. The other five suffered minor burns (1 to 2% of body with burns), said the director of the burns unit.
Noticias SIN reported that on Monday, nine people would be admitted in the La Victoria case to the Ney Arias Lora Hospital. Six were inmates and three firefighters, who had all inhaled a large amount of smoke.
Ten firefighter trucks and two CAASD water tankers were sent to the jail.
At least 1,000 inmates were transferred to other jails.
During the Danilo Medina administration, more than RD$4 billion was spent to build the La Parra mega jail where the inmates of La Victoria would have been transferred. The jail has not opened after major irregularities in the construction and legal problems were detected.
The La Victoria jail was built for 2,000 inmates and has more than 7,600.
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19 March 2024