Colombia’s Justice Ministry announced Friday new measures to stop the problem of overcrowding in the country’s prisons.
Justice minister Ruth Stella Correa said home detainment and the transfer of prisoners from overcrowded prisons to others represented a first step toward this goal.
“One of the first acts to be performed will be the fulfillment of the migration plan from some prisons to others presenting less overcrowding,” said the minister.
Colombia’s prison institute, Inpec, said it had already begun the transfer of 800 inmates from Bogota’s and Cali’s “La Modelo” prisons to other detention centers. By October this year over 2,000 more prisoners would have been moved, Inpec said.
“In order to succeed with we will need the collaboration of the judges and the courts in the quick response to these petitions,” Correan said.
Many of Colombia’s prisons have long been considered overcrowded. The Bellavista prison, located in Colombia’s second largest city Medellin, is built to handle some 2,400 inmates, but had a prison population of over 7,700 in 2012.