The Ministry of Justice on Thursday discussed plans to add capacity for 26,000 more inmates to combat systematic overcrowding in Colombian prisons.
The Minister of Justice, Ruth Stella Correa, proposed a project to modify penal code, build mega prisons in a state partnership with private investors, and expand the inmate capacity by 26,000. This is not the first time the Minister has mentioned the plan.
The situation in Colombian prisons is dire. Colombia Reports
Overcrowding is rampant.
MORE: ‘Humanitarian crisis’ in southwest Colombia prison
In August 2012 prisoners all over Colombia went on hunger strike to protest pervasive overcrowding and unbearable conditions. Calls for the resignation of the director of the country’s prison authority arose.
“Everyone is rioting and on a hunger strike. We are not accepting any type of nourishment,” inmates from Bogota‘s La Picota prison and from the Combita prison in the central Boyaca department told newspaper El Tiempo.
MORE: Colombian prisoners on hunger strike over overcrowding crisis