:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/ZQJVKPK5WFCKVFW34SHI33TC3U.jpg "They declare prison emergency in Colombia to combat criminal gangs")
He Government Colombian declared this Monday a state of prison emergency to combat the persecution of prison guards by criminal gangs and combat extortion carried out from the country’s detention centers, all of which are highly overcrowded.
“We have just unanimously approved in the Board of Directors of the National Penitentiary and Penitentiary Institute (Inpec) the declaration of prison emergency that two purposes“One, to protect the life and limb of prison guards, and the other, to completely eradicate extortion and corruption that comes from prisons,” said the Minister of Justice, Nestor Osuna.
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The measure comes after the wave of violence in recent weeks against employees of the Inpecwhose most recent event is the murder of agent Jesus Cardenasshot on Saturday by two assassins while having breakfast near the prison San Sebastian in Calfin Cartagena.
The director of Inpec explained that based on the prison emergency decree, visits to prisoners may be restricted, communications limited and transfers and operations carried out within the cells of gang leaders, such as ‘Immaculate‘, which over the weekend unleashed terror in Tuluá, in the department of Cauca Valley (south-west).
For capturing Mauritius Marina Silvaindeed ‘Nacho‘, one of the chiefs of’Immaculate‘, also known as ‘The office‘, this criminal gang murdered a traffic policeman, set fire to eight vehicles and threatened the mayor of Tulúa, Gustavo Velez.
Given this situation, the authorities of the Cauca Valley They militarized the city and, as reported this Monday, the situation is under control.
Osuna explained today that there will be money to buy cell phone signal blocking equipment in prisons, which is used by prisoners to extort and even plan other criminal actions.
Furthermore, they will follow making attacks and surprise searches of prisons and inmates suspected of committing crimes will be transferred from prisons.
What is sought by blocking signals is that inmates cannot “communicate easily or establish any relationship with the penitentiary officer or with people around the penitentiary establishment“He explained Osuna.
He Inpec It manages 125 prisons across the country, with a capacity for 81,740 prisoners, but currently houses 101,976 people deprived of their liberty.
This means that the occupancy of the country’s prisons exceeds their capacity by 20,236 inmates, which is equivalent to an overcrowding of 24.7%, classified as high by Inpec.
This is the fourth time that a prison emergency has been declared in Colombia. The first was in 2013 due to overcrowding; the second, in 2016, due to various problems, and the third, in 2020, due to the health emergency due to the coronavirus.
Source: Elcomercio
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