Uruguay will build a prison with a sector for trans people

Uruguaythe country with the highest per capita incarceration rate in South Americawill build a new prison with a space exclusively for transgender people, authorities announced.

“In the framework of a new prison that is projected in Montevideo there will be a specific sector for the trans population”the parliamentary commissioner for the prison system, Juan Miguel Petit, told AFP.

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“This is good news for a very vulnerable population that requires enormous attention”he added.

Petit estimated that the new prison could be ready in less than two years.

In Uruguaya country of about 3.5 million inhabitants, four out of every thousand inhabitants are in prison.

Currently, there are 14,965 people deprived of liberty, including 13,855 men and 1,110 women. The prison population includes 28 trans women and nine trans men, according to the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Prison System.

The number of prisoners exceeds the available capacity in the 26 detention units, with a density of 130% according to available places.

The female prison, whose construction “It will start soon in Punta de Rieles”about 15 km from the center of Montevideo, “It has a particularity that was never taken into account, which is the trans population”said the director of the National Rehabilitation Institute (INR)Luis Mendoza.

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“If the trans person enters the system, they have the right to decide if they want to go to a men’s or women’s prison”he said during a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday, according to the transcript released later.

Mendoza indicated that currently trans women are placed in female prisons, but living together entails “a whole process” of adaptation.

“We have to work a lot”said.

The hierarch considered that if the uruguayan state recognizes trans women and grants them appropriate identity documents, the prison system must give them “a room in female places, as befits”.

“The laws are very advanced in Uruguay, but the mentality and the infrastructure are not consistent. We are very saddened by this issue.”lament.

Uruguay it has an incarceration rate of 408 per 100,000 inhabitants, which ranks first in South America and tenth in the world, according to the World Prison Brief database of prison systems.

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Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.