After almost two months of work, the members of the Ecuadorian Penitentiary System Pacification Commission presented the first proposals for short, medium and long-term intervention in the country’s prisons.
The event took place on the morning of Wednesday the 9th in the Simón Bolívar room of the Guayas Governor’s Office. His measures focused on issues of education, health, social inclusion, among others, to “humanize” prisons.
“The first thing we can verify is that we are not going to eradicate deaths or cruelty, that is a job that requires more time, it will not be possible right away, but we can verify that we have managed to reduce violence and cruelty in prisons, not alone, but working together with State institutions and people deprived of liberty who are in the centers,” said Nelsa Curbelo, president and spokesperson for the Penitentiary Dialogue Commission.
She pointed out that cruelty should not only be attributed to people deprived of liberty, but to the entire prison system, which is violent, lacks appropriate health services, lacks education, overcrowding and other inhumane conditions.
The activist explained that they have met with leaders of different organizations in prisons, relatives of victims of massacres, judicial personnel, public officials, directors of the prison system (SNAI), among others.
Along with Curbelo were also Alejandra Delgado, Christian Nieto, Alfredo Narváez, Luis Barrios, Claudia Garzón and Francisco Loor, who are part of the commission. Several of them spoke about the lines of work that they have established as lines of action.
Narváez explained that it is necessary to provide health services, since the centers have found a deficit in this field.
To do this, he listed proposals such as having primary care points with primary care physicians staffed with supplies and medicines and that serious cases be channeled to health centers.
He spoke about implementing psychological and mental health care, in addition to providing specialized care to the elderly and people with drug addiction problems, working to improve basic services and articulating spiritual accompaniment.
On prison treatment and social care, Claudia Garzón said that it is necessary to promote a real classification of inmates, leaving aside the thought that prisons are “warehouses of human flesh” and motivating dignity, humanization and resocialization with education. , self-sustaining projects that are dedicated to work activities.
Nelsa Curbelo: There are already dialogues with gang leaders to advance to the first objective, which is to stop the clashes and deaths
In addition, he considered vital the creation of a prison school for servers, prison criminology and crime prevention to understand criminal dynamics.
Cristhian Nieto spoke of business development with a public policy in prisons with the implementation of auto mechanics, electronics, and furniture workshops, among others.
He also said that with the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion (MIES) it is possible to work with the relatives of those deprived of liberty.
Given the massacres that caused more than 300 fatalities in the country’s prisons, especially in Guayaquil, the commission was created by executive decree in December of the previous year.
At the end of the event, the members of the commission joined in a prayer to ask for the pacification of the prisons. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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