MONTEVIDEO, June 23 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) — More homicides occur in Uruguayan prisons than in the streets, sociologist and academic Gabriel Tenembaum said.
‟Deaths in custody continue to rise, and the rate of homicides in custody is considerably higher than the rate of homicides in prison,” he told the publication Caras y Caretas.
Statistics confirm that prison is a breeding ground where risk factors are exacerbated and minimum decent living conditions are not met, he noted.
‟It’s striking, but prisons should be the safest places because they exist to deprive criminals of their liberty and provide security to society in general, and yet the opposite is happening,” he emphasized.
Uruguay ranks tenth in the world among countries with the most prisoners: 408 per 100,000 inhabitants, the publication stated.
It also reported that in the two decades of this century, the prison population has tripled.
A report by Penitentiary Commissioner Juan Manuel Petit placed the annual average prison population at more than 14,000 in 2022.
“From a discursive standpoint, all governments have considered some type of plan, reforms have been implemented, and none have been successful,” he opined.
The expert concluded that overcrowding is part of the problem, but the greatest danger is the lack of internal security in prisons. — NNN-PRENSA LATINA
