New jails ready in four months

PANAMA. A contract to build desperately-needed new prison facilites has been given to an Italian consortium, according to Minister for Government and Justice, Jose Raul Molino.

During a recent tour of Chiriqui, Mulino said that existing prisons are overcrowded and insanitary and do not provide an encouraging environment for rehabilitating prisoners to go back out into society once they finish their sentences.

Most of the building that are currently used as prisons were originally military barracks and were designed neither as jails nor for incarcerating so many inhabitants.

Mulino gave no details about the Italian consortium but said that the principal aim was to provide a solution to the terrible conditions in which many prisoners are now living in different jails throughout Panama.

The new prisons are pre-designed and are made up of a series of self-contained modules, each of which has a modern security system and can adequately house two to eight inmates.

“These modules include toilet and washing facilities that are made out of material that cannot be used as a weapon. They will be ready to be inhabited in four months and, moreover, they fulfill all the needs of prison inmates in accordance with international human rights legislation.” said Mulino.

The aim is to increase prison capacity by providing penal facilities that meet government plans to satisfy inmates needs and allows for prisoners to be resocialised.

“Our campaigns to prevent crime are dependent on us having enough detention centres and the current facilities are completely full. The cost of building new prisons is included in the Ministry’s budget for next year.”

Mulino has asked the Governor of Chiriqui to allocate a lot where a new prison can be built. Similarly, the state of overcrowded prisons in Colon, Las Tablas and La Chorrera, which are also located in urban centres, is to be investigated because of their social affects on nearby residential areas.

A study on the prevention of crime and treatment of prisoners that was presented at the beginning of August by the United Nations Latin-American Institute revealed that Panama holds secon place in Latin America for the greatest number of prisoner inhabitants per capita.

Elias Carranza, director of the Institute, said that 275 out of every 100,000 Panamanian citizens are behind bars, an “alarming” figure for the countries total population of a little over 3 million.

Carranza urged the Panamanian authorities to give the prison issue priority attention and to instigate urgent measures to find a solution.

Panama’s Minister for Government and Justice has travelled twice to Columbia on fact-finding missions to see how they run their prisons.

It is estimated that up to $20 million will be invested in the construction of new prisons in the next few years.