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NEWS AROUND PRISON AND LAW  /  SOUTH AMERICA

18. Dezember 2005

JAMAICA

neun monate nachdem drei gefangene und ein wärter bei einem riot getötet wurden, hat die knastbehörde jetzt videoüberwachung im tower street knast / kingston installiert, um riots zukünftig zu verhindern. ob mit den kameras auch die wäreter überwacht werden, steht da nicht. einer der 3 gefangenen war von wärtern nach dem riot tot geschlagen worden.

PRISON gets new camera surveillance system, nine months after ...

THE Department of Correctional Services unveiled Friday a $1.5 million closed circuit television system at the Tower Street adult prison as a boost to security at the maximum facility, a near nine months after the last riot. In March, a prison escape resulted in the death of three prisoners and a warder in the accompanying melee, which was staged in a bid to mask the escape bid. A board of enquiry subsequently found that the response by warders to contain the riot breached procedures and a lack of command and control.

Since then, the prisons have tightened security checks on visitors, whose numbers are contained per visit, and who must register with the prison before access is allowed to inmates. The new closed circuit cameras are meant to enhance surveillance of the prisoners. "With the closed circuit system, there are a number of cameras, which will allow us to monitor, internally and externally, our situations. For investigative purposes, you can replay what has happened," said prison boss Major Richard Reese. There are plans, he said, to continually upgrade the system. The riot at the maximum security facility, also known as the General Penitentiary, ended with the death of prison warder Maurice Whittingham, 28, of Horizon Park in Spanish Town, St Catherine, who was shot dead, while three of his colleagues, Wayne Lindsay, Roger Mills and Cleopatrick Blake, and an aftercare officer Carol Clarke were shot and injured.

The prisoners who died were Kamar Cottrell, Richard Harrison and Jeffrey Jones. Jones, the enquiry found, was beaten to death by warders after the riot had been contained. Correctional Services has since introduced sectionalised fencing in the prison cells, so that each cell has its own contained area. And, the visitors' booth have been restructured to separate the prisoners from visitors. Reese also told the Sunday Observer that the department has also earmarked teams for emergency response to potentially threatening situations.

"Each team will have six members and will be strategically placed to respond to situations," he said. The prisons, whose ideal population are a combined 4,247 prisoners, are some 1,500 inmates over capacity. But Reese says the overcrowding at the island's two largest facilities would be reduced by January. The 1,800 prisoners at Tower Street, will be cut to 1,600; and at the St Catherine prison, the numbers will be reduced from 1,300 to 1,200. The prisoners are to be transferred, he said, to the Tamarind Farm and Richmond Farm correctional centres.

[  jamaicaobserver.com

29. November 2005

MEXICO

das höchste gericht des landes hat am Dienstag entschieden, das verdächtigte mexikanerinnen denen eine lebenslange strafe droht, ausgeliefert werden können. Damit nimmt das gericht ein von ihm 2001 erlassenes urteil wieder zurück, das die auslieferung von menschen , denen lebenslang ohne aussicht auf bewährung droht, verbot. Ein abkommen aus dem jahr 1978 nachdem keine mexikanerinnen ausgeliefert werden denen die todesstrafe droht ist von dem urteil nicht betroffen.

Mexican Court Overturns Extradition

Ban

Mexico's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that suspects facing life in prison can be extradited, overturning a 4-year-old ban that had prevented many of the country's most notorious criminals from being sent to the United States.

A 1978 treaty with the United States allows Mexico to deny extradition if a person faces the death penalty ? a restriction that still stands under Tuesday's ruling. But the ruling overturns a 2001 the Supreme Court decision that blocked extradition of suspects facing life in prison without the possibility of parole. Capital punishment has been banned by Mexico's constitution since June and was only rarely applied for decades before that. Life sentences are also rare. The high court took up the issue after the government of the northern state of Chihuahua modified its penal code to include life sentences in convictions involving homicide and kidnapping. Tuesday's ruling also declared Chihuahua's state law constitutional, setting a precedent that could allow for more life sentences.

Judges ruled 6-5 to throw out the life without parole restriction, but their ruling will not ease extradition restrictions for suspects who could face the death penalty, a court spokesman said. He said the ruling will apply to all suspects captured in Mexico ? including U.S. citizens who commit crimes, then flee south of the border.

"This is a landmark legal decision that clears the way to return murderers to face justice here in the United States, where they committed their crimes," said Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, who estimated that as many as 3,000 murderers have fled the U.S. to Mexico to avoid prosecution. During a full high court session, 10 judges normally vote. In the case of a tie, chief justice Mariano Azuela is called upon to cast the deciding vote. The 2001 ban kept many of the country's top drug lords and other notorious suspects in Mexico ? and out of reach of U.S. authorities.

In one of the latest cases, Raul Gomez-Garcia was caught in Mexico in June after being accused of killing a Denver police officer. Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey brought second-degree murder charges against Gomez-Garcia because a first-degree charge could have blocked the extradition by allowing life imprisonment or the death penalty. The U.S. Embassy had no comment on Tuesday's ruling.

The federal attorney general's office is considering U.S. extradition requests for Benjamin Arellano Felix, the reputed head of the Tijuana-based cocaine- and marijuana-smuggling syndicate bearing his family's name. U.S. prosecutors are also seeking to try Osiel Cardenas, who authorities say ran the Gulf cartel and was responsible for moving thousands of tons of cocaine and other narcotics across the Texas border. Despite Tuesday's ruling, Mexican law still requires that suspects be tried first in this country before being sent abroad for new trials.

[  yahoo.com

27. November 2005

HONDURAS

für den größten knast des landes wurde die sicherheitsstufe erhöht. Es wird mit riots von gangmitgliedern zu den wahlen gerechnet.

Honduras raises `red alert' for prison

The director of Honduras' main federal prison said on Friday he has ordered a "red alert" based on intelligence that inmates, including gang members, may be planning a riot or a mass escape during national elections this weekend.

But three members of the Mara Salvatrucha-13 gang serving time here say the real danger today will be the probable election of a president who plans to impose harsher penalties for gang members -- a plan they say will backfire and only unleash more violence.

The two leading presidential candidates -- ruling National Party nominee Porfirio Lobo Sosa and Liberal Party challenger Manuel Zelaya -- are locked in a tight race with no clear winner. Lobo Sosa has proposed imposing the death penalty for violent gang members and others who commit "abominable" crimes such as sexual assault, drug trafficking, murder and terrorism. Zelaya has said he would support life in prison for violent criminals, and in the campaign's final days, pledged to be tough on gangs.

The 250 members of the Mara Salvatrucha and 167 members of the rival Mara 18 housed inside the National Penitentiary of Honduras are not very keen on those campaign pledges and, as a result, could cause problems on election day, said penitentiary director Marvin Rajo, 30. "It's possible that chaos could be unleashed here," Rajo said in his office at the prison in Tamara, 32km north of Tegucigalpa.

"If we have any crisis in the jails on Sunday, it will start here," he said. Honduras operates 24 prisons housing 11,000 inmates, including 1,800 gang members, in facilities that are vastly overcrowded. The national penitentiary, with its capacity for 1,500 prisoners, has a head count of more than 3,600 prisoners, Rajo said.

Rajo has doubled security at the prison after receiving intelligence that inmates may be planning to riot or attempt a mass escape on election day. But Mara Salvatrucha gang members Julio Cesar Rodriguez, 26, Hector Hernandez, 25, and Carlos Martinez, 29, interviewed in a prison recreation area moments before Rajo made his comments, said the real trouble will come when a new president tries to implement the stronger punishments against gangs. If Lobo Sosa gets Congress to approve the death penalty, for example, "it will increase the violence," Rodriguez said. "A war from the government will not bring an end to the other war," he said.

[  taipeitimes.com

6. november 2005

JAMAICA

demnächst soll eine studie über hiv / aids bei gefangenen erscheinen. Schon vor der veröffentlichung hat der knastchef darauf bestanden das keine/r der hiv-infizierten gefangenen sich im knast angesteckt hat, und bahauptet keiner der rund 5.000 männer und frauen in den knästen hätten weder einvernehmlich sex noch gäbe es vergewaltigungen.

Prisoners monitored to keep them celibate, but HIV prevalent

A study is underway in the island's prisons to determine how big a problem is HIV/AIDS infection among inmates, and to map other diseases or health conditions that have emerged among prisoners. The study, using a sample of 100 prisoners from the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre, is being done by Johns Hopkins University with the input of the Ministry of Health.

But immediately, prison boss Major Richard Reese is insisting that none of the inmates who have HIV could have been infected while in his custody, asserting that none of the prisoners are having sex, whether consensual or through rape.

There are some 5,000 men and women behind prison bars. His warders, according to Reese, monitor the showers and other zones of opportunity to ensure that there is no intercourse. And those inmates who display homosexual tendencies or who openly declare that they homosexuals are isolated from the general prison population.

"If there is such an inclination then we segregate inmates. So, if you're sexually disoriented then you have to go elsewhere. That is the practical solution," he said. Homosexuals, he added, are also housed in individual cells. "We house them in a manner to prevent (sexual contact). People may say it is discrimination. We say it is what works."

Reese's assertions about the sexual conduct of prisoners is in direct contrast to 1997, when an attempt was made to distribute condoms to prisoners to curb sexually transmitted infections. Then, according to prison doctor at the time, Dr Raymoth Notice, tests done on 1,000 prisoners had found an infection rate of 7.6 per cent for HIV among inmates - meaning that almost eight of every 10 prisoners tested were infected.

The condom plan caused a bloody riot, that ended with the killing of six inmates, all suspected homosexuals. Notice, a former medical officer with the prisons, also told the Sunday Observer that up to 2001, there were incidents of homosexual acts, including gang rape. "There were those homosexuals who will tell you outright of their sexual activities," he said. "And then there are often times those who are gang raped. I have seen men come in prison sober and leave totally mad as a result of being raped by men in prison." The mentally ill prisoners, said the doctor, are often easy targets. Their abuse was often only revealed during psychiatric treatment.

But, still insisting that the prisoners were celibate, the commissioner of corrections ruled out any thought of condom distribution to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, saying there was no need for such a strategy. "We are not going that road as a policy. We don't see any necessity for that," Reese told the Sunday Observer. "In the outer world the prevalence and practices are different. One thing I have learned in my job is that the practices must fit our situations. We operate based on the situation that faces us," he added.

Their focus, he maintained, is on 'edutainment' or education through entertainment, with much of the activity, including peer counseling, occurring in annual 'Safer Sex Week' observed nationally in February. Those who complete their sentences also get a care package, with information on HIV/AIDS and other disease, under what has been dubbed the 'Homeward Bound' initiative. Notice, despite his knowledge of homosexual sex in the penal institutions, was noncommittal on the issue of condom use, though he claims that prophylactics are smuggled in. "It's a touchy subject. Condoms in a prison, at this time, is considered a contraband, (but) based on my experience, there are incidents where condoms are being slipped in the prisons. One just has only to go to the sewage plant,"he said.

"I think there are those inmates who protect themselves using condoms, and other plastics which is not secure, and they have a right to protect themselves." It is not immediately clear what the current prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS is among members of Jamaica's prison population, but internationally, the rates usually run ahead of the general population. Reese, meanwhile, said the ongoing research at Tower Street is part of a bigger reproductive health project. "That project involves the sensitisation of inmates on communicable disease. It also has a clinical aspect where laboratory testing is done, counseling services, treatment programmes and research," he said. "What that project will do is to help us to better structure our medical treatment programmes. For example, once an inmate enters an institution, what are the types of examinations that must be done." Logically, he said, there could not be testing for every and all diseases. With the benefit of the research component of the project, however, they would know for what to test.

The research effort has been ongoing over the last two years and is expected to be completed during the course of next year. The researchers are using questionnaires, focus group discussions and laboratory testing to collect information, Reese said.

[  

29. Oktober 2005

GUATEMALA

zwei wärter des knastes pavoncito, etwa 10 km südöstlich der hauptstadt guatemala city, vor dem knast erschossen, ein dritter wurde verletzt. In dem bericht wird ein zusammenhang vermutet mit dem riot im knast el boqueron und der flucht von 19 gefangenen aus dem hochsicherheitsknast in escuitla.

Guatemalan gang members kill 2 guards

A group of gang members opened fire on a prison truck here Saturday, killing two guards as they were leaving work at the end of their shift and wounding a third, a top official said. The assailants apparently used assault weapons to kill the guards as they were leaving the "Pavoncito" prison, six miles southeast of the capital, Guatemala City, said Sandra Sayas, director-general of Guatemala's prison system.

The attack came just a day after members of the dangerous Mara Salvatrucha gang rioted at El Boqueron prison 30 miles west of Guatemala City, threatening to decapitate two guards until officials agreed to allow televisions in cells, permit conjugal visits and transfer a group of prisoners who are not gang members to another facility. It also came just a week after 19 dangerous inmates escaped from a maximum-security prison in Escuintla, in southern Guatemala.

Sayas said that she also received anonymous calls on Friday that inmates would try to escape from the Cantel prison in western Guatemala, prompting officials to transfer three of the alleged attempted escapees to another facility. Acting on a similar tip called into Sayas, the army on Saturday searched for an escape tunnel that prisoners apparently dug at the Zone 18 Detention Center in the capital, one of the country's largest detention facilities.

[  seattlepi.nwsource.com

13. Oktober 2005

HAITI

Bericht über einen knast in haiti in dem kinder inhaftiert sind. Die wenigsten bewohnerinnen von port-au-prince kennen den knast. Dort sind 64 junge männer / jungs im alter zwischen 10 und 17 jahren inhaftiert. Viele sind dort seit über einem jahr und etwa 80% haben bis jetzt noch keine anklage. In den dunklen zellen , die 2,44 m x 3,05 m groß sind, sind 16 kinder ,die sich 3 doppelbetten teilen müssen.

Haiti's Children's Prison
Hope is Fading

Rays of Haiti's scorching noontime sun slip between the bars into the otherwise dark 8 by 10 foot cell, illuminating the sets of eyes that stare out at the visitors. My eyes adjust and the forms of children emerge. I count 16 boys. Most squeeze seated together on the upper and lower levels of the three bunk beds that fit into a tight "U." A few sprawl behind the seated ones or sit in the tight space on the concrete floor that separates the beds. Three more cells, each with 16 boys, adjoin this one. The youngest of the 64 children is 10. There are at least three 10-year-olds. The oldest is 17. Many have lived in these cells for more than a year.

A journalist visiting Haiti for the third time, I'm accompanying San Francisco Bay Area human rights workers. With me at the children's prison is Sr. Stella Goodpasture, OP, Justice Promoter, Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose and translator, guide, advisor and friend, Daniel Tillas. We speak to the children one at a time through the bars of the first cell door and Sister Stella offers each the packet of toiletries she has brought and her blessings. We talk with the children in the other three cells more briefly as they receive their packets.

About 80 percent of those we interview have not been brought before a judge to be charged with a crime, something the Haitian constitution requires during the first 48 hours after arrest. Several children say they were brought to see a judge before being taken to jail as required, but the judge wasn't there, so they were locked up.

Those who had actually seen a judge, such as Claude, 15, were simply read a summary statement of charges. "The judges won't give you a chance to talk. They let you be in here forever," Claude said. (While the youngsters are anxious for others to hear their stories and do not ask for anonymity, I am withholding their real names because they are children and they are not safe.) Judges asked several children for money for their release. One judge demanded $5,000 U.S. for the child to get out of jail.

None of the children has legal representation.

While some children have been jailed for as long as 18 months, none reports being incarcerated before Feb. 29, 2004, when the U.S. flew President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile. (The U.S. says Aristide asked to go, but Aristide, now exiled in South Africa, says he was forced out.) One guard tells me many of the children were jailed as "preventive detention," though the children do not explain their incarceration in that way. A number say they were picked up in police "operations," which are sweeps of poorest districts, during which police and/or United Nations soldiers cast a wide net, looking for individuals who may be "bandits" or "chimères," often code words for Aristide supporters.

Samuel, 12, has been locked up since Dec. 12, 2004. He was in his home, building a birdhouse, when police came inside and arrested him as part of an "operation." Sylvan, 16, has been jailed since July 5, 2004, caught up in a police sweep. Paul, 15, was also picked up in a police sweep, arrested with others in his family home and incarcerated since April 28, 2004. Ronald, 17, has been in prison since July 21, 2004, picked up while "the police were looking for bandits." Raymond, 14, got picked up Dec. 5, 2004 in a police "operation." One of the few, his parents visit every Sunday.

Daniel, 10, was arrested Dec. 12, 2004 and is accused of murder. Edwin, 15, was found smoking marijuana and has been jailed since May 29, 2004; Charles, 14, was accused of gang affiliation and has been jailed since May 12, 2004; Jacques, 17, was arrested Sept. 24, 2004 after a fight. Marc, 16, accused of rape, has been incarcerated since Nov. 24, 2004. Joseph, 16, has been in jail since March 24, 2004, accused of murder.

The children do not claim mistreatment by prison guards, who walk out of earshot during the interviews, but some speak of police beatings at the time of their arrest. Jean, 15, has been locked up since January. When police arrested him "they asked me to tell them about the bandits." He told them he didn't know who they were. "They beat me and forced me to say I know the bandits," he said. Paul was also beaten during his arrest. "They beat us to say something," he said.

A few of the children, such as Samuel, 14, and Edwin say their parents don't know where they are. (The existence of the children's jail is largely unknown in Port-au-Prince.) Some, but not all, are street children, orphans or those whose parents were unable to afford to keep them at home. Those few parents who visit speak to their children through the narrow cell door, as we are doing.

The kids leave their cells to shower and for a daily recreation period; they accomplish their toilet needs at shower and recreation time. They have a bucket to share at other times. The children said the Red Cross has come to visit them. Jean-Yves Clemenzo Port-au-Prince Red Cross spokesperson said he was unable to comment on the organization's role there. The organization's access to prisons depends on keeping discussions with authorities out of the public eye. "It's a long process," he said, acknowledging that the prison conditions in Haiti, in general, such as at the National Penitentiary and the Women's Prison present "a lot of needs." The Red Cross has installed a water system at the National Penitentiary, which had been lacking.

Clemenzo also reiterated what is already well known in Haiti: "Many are in jail without due process." The Red Cross is addressing some of that need. "We're in discussions with the department of prison affairs to express our concerns," he said, noting a limitation of resources.

(Attempts to meet with Thierry Fagart, U.N. human rights official, in Port-au-Prince or to get comments from him by phone or e-mail have been unsuccessful. The U.N. oversees police and jails in Haiti.) When we get to the last cell, the guards ask us to speed up our visit, as it is approaching time for recreation. We find one child lying on a back bunk, his head wrapped in what could have been a shirt. He is not interested in talking or getting up to receive the packet of toiletries. He says he's had a bad headache for five days. The children say they don't see doctors. The guards are unaware of the child's headache, and, in front of the visitors, call someone they say will give him medical attention. The visit weighs heavily on Sr. Stella. "I'm grief struck and shocked to see the children in the dark with no place to sleep," she says.

I ask some of the children what they wish for. Many say education. "I'd like some training," says Edwin. "Something to help me be useful for my country." Others express hopelessness. "I need prayers," says Claude, jailed since July 11. "I don't know how long I'll stay here."

[  blackcommentator.com

8. September 2005

Mexico / El Salvador / Guatemala / Honduras / USA

der erste länderübergreifende einsatz gegen die ms-13 ( mara salvatrucha ), unter der leitung des fbi in washington.

More than 650 suspected gang members arrested in five-country crackdown

More than 650 suspected members of MS-13 and other gangs were arrested in the United States, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in a coordinated crackdown on violent Hispanic gangs, officials said Thursday. But even as a senior FBI official set a goal of dismantling MS-13 in the next 18 months, police officials from the other countries described vast challenges in quelling gang activity in their prisons and disrupting recruitment. The roundup, conducted Wednesday by 6,400 law enforcement officers in the five countries, was run out of FBI headquarters in Washington, FBI assistant director Chris Swecker said.

"Our end game is to take out the leadership elements especially," Swecker said at a news conference. "These arrests are a means to that end." Police and federal agents made 73 arrests, more than half on immigration charges, in 13 states, Swecker said. Thirty-two people were arrested in California alone. Authorities also arrested 237 people in El Salvador, 162 in Honduras, 98 in Guatemala and 90 in Mexico. The arrests in Mexico all took place in the southern Chiapas state, near the border with Guatemala. MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, originated in Los Angeles among Central American immigrants. An estimated 10,000 MS-13 members are in the U.S., with the highest concentrations in Los Angeles, New York, northern Virginia and Maryland, the FBI said.

MS-13 may have as many as 50,000 members in the other four countries, officials said. The foreign police officials said they are all but powerless to stop gang activity in the prison population. "The gang leader must die," said Gen. Mirna Suazo Rivera of the Honduran National Preventive Police. In El Salvador, poor areas are fertile recruiting grounds, where "10,000 gang members have 10,000 families, brothers, sons, nephews, cousins," said Douglas Omar Garcia-Funes, the country's assistant director of investigations.

[  policeone.com

6. September 2005

VENEZUELA

280 menschen sind in den ersten 8 monaten des jahres 2005 in den knästen bei riots und "internen auseinandersetzungen" gestorben. Dazu kommen noch einmal 449 menschen die zwischen januar und ende juli entweder erschossen oder erstochen wurden. Im august starben 79 menschen, 79 wurden verletzt.laut der venezuelan observatory of prisons , einer ngo, sind in den 30 knästen des landes, die für 15. 000 gefangene gebaut sind, 20.000 menschen inhaftiert, 47% davon sind verurteilt.

Almost 300 dead in Venezuelan prisons

Based on the numbers provided by the Venezuelan Observatory of Prisons, 280 inmates died within the first eight months of 2005 in Venezuelan prisons as a result of riots and internal confrontations, AP reported. Additionally, 449 were shot dead or victim of cold steel from January to August. In August, there were 44 inmates dead and 79 injured. Collapsing facilities and poor surveillance allow for access of illicit drugs, knives, firearms and even grenades. Last year, about 327 prisoners died and 655 were injured during internal quarrels as a result of overcrowded sites, police abuse and poor conditions, the Observatory said in a press release. In some jails, inmates have taken control of cells and hindered access of security officers. Violence and overcrowded prisons are also the result of caseload and slow responsiveness. Frequently, inmates' relatives are taken hostage to demand quick trials. According to the human rights NGO, there are 30 jails nationwide that were built for 15,000 prisoners, but they host 20,000. Only 47 percent has been sentenced.

[  eluniversal.com

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