Honduras' Prisons: A Death Trap

The combination of old and poorly-designed structures, massive overcrowding, non-existent maintenance, horribly paid and trained guards, incompetent administrators, and relatively disinterested and inadequately-funded federal, departmental, and municipal governments all combine to make Honduras' jails and prisons virtual death traps.

By Marco Cáceres
No one should be surprised about the fire that killed 382 people at the National Penitentiary of Comayagua late on Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning. The surprise should be that such a tragedy does not happen more frequently in Honduras' 24 severely overcrowded prisons. Why would anyone expect that -- given the extreme poverty; endemic corruption and negligence; non-existent building and systems maintenance; and horrendous management and administration; and pervasive ineptitude that plagues Honduras -- the jails and prisons in the country would not be a microcosm of the society... magnified to the worst? Why would anyone reasonably assume that the basic human rights and needs of inmates in Honduras would be respected and ensured when those of more than two-thirds of the Honduran population are not? Outraged, yes. Surprised, no.

Imagine. The Comayagua prison was built in the 1940s to house no more than 400 inmates. There were about 852 in the facility when the fire broke out. Think about the conditions inside, given the conditions under which the average person in Honduras lives and works. Visualize the electrical system behind the crumbling walls and the state of the electrical sockets. Visualize the daily life of the prisoners in a minimally ventilated, filthy cell that is so packed with people that there is nowhere to stretch out on the floor without touching another person. People stand and sleep in such close proximity that you can smell each other's breath and sweat. This is constant. Doesn't ever let up. There is almost no chance to get away for an hour or two of exercise in a large courtyard with a basketball court or weightlifting equipment (like you see in movies and TV shows).

Think about the state of the bathrooms and kitchens in Honduran prisons. Visualize the toilets and the plumbing behind the walls and beneath the floors. You know how bad these are in most houses in Honduras. What do you suppose they're like in the prisons? Visualize the sanitary conditions of the kitchens... assuming there is a kitchen, of course. I've seen medieval kitchens in some of the hospitals in Honduras (not to mention operating rooms), and so you can imagine the prehistoric ones in the prisons.

But often in Honduran jails and prisons, the inmates are left to provide for much of their own sustenance, which means that they are left to rely on their friends and relatives to regularly bring them food supplies. Of course, some of the prisoners cook in their cells, and so they have things like hotplates and perhaps a small toaster oven, maybe an occasional small microwave or mini-frig -- (Unlikely these are top-of-the-line new purchases). Maybe a lamp or two to compensate for the dim bulbs and lack of natural light in the cells. Oh yeah, many inmates have cellphones, which allows them to stay in touch with their loved ones, friends, or members of their gang. Phones require charging every few days.

Imagine the stress on the electrical wiring of a facility built decades ago -- wiring that is already water-damaged from rain coming in through the leaky roofs or corroded pipes, or eaten through by rats. When do you think the prison administrator last hired an electrician or plumber to inspect, fix, or upgrade things? Probably not enough money in the budget, and probably even less personal initiative to make the decision.

The combination of old and poorly-designed structures, massive overcrowding, non-existent maintenance, horribly paid and trained guards, incompetent administrators, and relatively disinterested and inadequately-funded federal, departmental, and municipal governments all combine to make Honduras' jails and prisons virtual death traps. It is a wonder that fires such as the one in Comayagua don't break out every month.

If it turns out that the fire at the Comayagua prison was started by a deranged Cell 6 inmate who lit up his mattress so he and everyone else in the place would go up in flames together, it doesn't diminish the danger that prisoners throughout Honduras still face from the fact that they are a dead last on the totem pole in a nation that is the second or third poorest in the Western Hemisphere and suffers from the highest homicide rate in the world. Unfortunately and sadly, the chance that they are going to move up the ladder anytime soon is remote because Honduras' "to do" list is a mile long. (1/16/12) (photo courtesy Internet)

Note: The author is the editor and cofounder of Honduras Weekly. He is also the cofounder of projecthonduras.com, an international network of volunteers involved in humanitarian development projects aimed at empowering the people of Honduras. He directs the annual Conference on Honduras in the town of Copán Ruinas in northwestern Honduras. He was born in Tegucigalpa.