Dominican officers cram hundreds of inmates going through no prices into overcrowded prisons

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — They’re often called “frog men,” inmates who’re compelled to sleep on jail flooring throughout the Dominican Republic, typically subsequent to overflowing bogs or holes within the floor that function one.

1000’s of them are crammed into the nation’s severely overcrowded prisons, some working at seven occasions their capability. A majority languish there with out ever having been charged with against the law, and activists warn they face inhuman situations and an absence of medical care.

Regardless of guarantees to enhance the system, critics say the Dominican Republic continues to push for and permit pretrial detentions in almost all prison circumstances the place no prices have been filed and has made few modifications as issues inside prisons preserve mounting.

“Prisons have become no man’s land,” stated Rodolfo Valentín Santos, director of the Dominican Republic’s Nationwide Public Protection Workplace.

Over 60% of the nation’s roughly 26,000 inmates are being held underneath preventive detention, with none prices, in response to the Nationwide Public Protection Workplace. Proponents argue the measure goals to guard society and permits authorities time to gather proof in a case.

However some detainees have spent as much as 20 years in jail with out ever being discovered responsible of against the law, Valentín stated.

He famous that the nation’s Structure and penal code dictate that preventive detention is an “exceptional” measure. There are six different measures that do not contain jail time, together with bail, however Valentín stated they’re not often used.

‘We now have a scenario’

On a latest afternoon, Darwin Lugo and Yason Guzmán walked out of La Victoria Nationwide Penitentiary, within the northeast nook of the sprawling capital, Santo Domingo.

The jail was constructed for a most of two,100 inmates however holds greater than 7,000 of them, with greater than 3,300 underneath pretrial detention, in response to the Nationwide Public Protection Workplace.

It’s the nation’s oldest and most populated jail.

“You have to watch out for your life,” stated Lugo, who with Guzmán visited a number of buddies held there, some underneath pretrial detention.

“There are a lot of them who are not doing well,” Guzmán stated of inmates there. “There’s extreme poverty.”

They stated their buddies, who’ve spent greater than 5 years incarcerated there, are well-connected and solely sometimes request cash or ask that their mobile phone’s SIM card be recharged.

Final 12 months, a minimum of 11 inmates died at La Victoria following a brief circuit in a cell that sparked a fireplace and an explosion. It was one of many nation’s deadliest jail fires since 2005, when a minimum of 134 inmates had been killed within the jap city of Higüey after rival gangs set their bedding ablaze.

After final 12 months’s hearth at La Victoria, Dominican President Luis Abinader appointed former prisons director Roberto Santana as head of a fee tasked with overhauling and bettering the nation’s greater than 40 prisons.

“We must admit, gentlemen, that we have a situation in all of the country’s prisons,” Abinader stated when he introduced the appointment final March. He additionally introduced that cash recovered from corruption circumstances would assist fund development of latest prisons.

Santana has lengthy known as for the closure of La Victoria and the 15 de Azua jail, situated within the nation’s western area. The fee he leads is engaged on these and different monumental duties, free from exterior interference, he stated.

“We don’t take orders from politicians or anyone else,” stated Santana, who beforehand educated workers for the brand new prisons constructed within the early 2000s.

Santana, who as soon as served as president of the Federation of Dominican College students within the Seventies, was arrested a number of occasions underneath President Joaquín Balaguer, identified for having political opponents and dissidents jailed and generally killed.

Santana is aware of first-hand the situations of La Victoria — he spent two years in solitary confinement there.

‘Getting ready to collapse’

Within the early 2000s, the Dominican Republic started constructing 21 new prisons to enhance situations. They had been staffed by educated personnel, not police and troopers, which oversee the nation’s different 19 prisons.

However situations within the new prisons have deteriorated, in response to the Dominican Republic’s Nationwide Fee of Human Rights.

“The Dominican Republic’s prison system is on the brink of collapse,” the fee stated in its 2023 report, the most recent one obtainable.

In prisons throughout the nation, overcrowding is rampant. Cells lack bogs, pure mild and air flow, resulting in worsening well being situations. Some 5,000 inmates are in poor health with situations starting from coronary heart issues to most cancers to HIV, however they obtain solely probably the most fundamental treatment, if that, and a few prisons haven’t any medical workers, in response to Valentín, whose workplace points a yearly in-depth report on the situations of all prisons.

In its 2023 report, the most recent 12 months obtainable, his workplace known as for the closure of prisons together with one within the north coastal metropolis of Nagua.

“The level of overcrowding…makes it impossible to achieve true rehabilitation for the inmates since they have been forgotten by the state,” the report learn. “In the conditions they are in, it is obvious that they are treated as objects and not as human beings endowed with rights.”

One other jail was so overcrowded that the federal government held inmates outside in vehicles with metallic roofs that broiled underneath the solar, sparking lawsuits, Valentín stated.

A spokesperson for Col. Roberto Hernández Basilio, director of prisons, didn’t reply to requests for an interview. Hernández has beforehand stated his workplace is taking measures to enhance situations.

In the meantime, Dominican Legal professional Basic Miriam Germán Brito has repeatedly spoken out towards pretrial detention however famous that the choice lies within the fingers of judges. A spokesperson for Germán stated she will not be granting media interviews.

Each Santana and Valentín stated they consider authorities corruption is one motive the nation has dragged its toes in overhauling the system, accusing troopers and police who run prisons of benefiting from unlawful actions.

Public corruption additionally prompted authorities to halt development of a much-touted jail in recent times that was anticipated to ease overcrowding.

At the same time as that half-built jail wastes away, Santana stated he expects that 25 new prisons able to holding greater than 20,000 inmates can be constructed by 2028.

Whereas these are anticipated to assist ease overcrowding, considerations stay. Activists notice that inmates will not be freed even when a choose has legally launched them.

The Nationwide Fee of Human Rights famous that roughly 2,700 inmates are nonetheless in jail as a result of their paperwork is paralyzed in backlogged courts. In the meantime, a whole bunch of others stay incarcerated regardless of being formally freed as a result of they owe the federal government cash and are unable to pay fines ordered by a choose.