The president of the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE), Iván Paredes, warned about the critical situation in the country’s penitentiary establishments, after the recent escapes recorded in the Piura and Huaral prisons.
The official warned that both centers operate with a level of overpopulation which triples its capacity and with a marked shortage of penitentiary agents.
As detailed, the Huaral prison currently houses 4,200 inmates, although it was designed for 823, while the Piura prison has capacity for 1,500, but has a population of 4,500 inmates.
“There is a tremendous overpopulation and we do not have personnel. I am giving you the situation in which it is in these and many prisons in the country. So, what does that mean? Definitely, that we urgently need penitentiary agents”Paredes expressed to RPP.
The head of INPE specified that, in accordance with international standards, there must be one penitentiary agent for every 30 inmates. However, in Peru the current ratio is one for every 300 or 500 inmates, which aggravates security risks.
He added that this deficit is linked to the inactivity of the National Center for Criminological and Penitentiary Studies (CENECP), the entity in charge of training specialized personnel.
“Crime is increasing, but we don’t have agents. Every day crime increases and we don’t have prison agents. We have asked for a budget allocation for a thousand agents, so that it can start working next year”he pointed out.
Paredes also reported that a inmate reclassification process to improve control of those who represent the greatest danger.
He questioned that 200 inmates per hitman and extortion In the Piura prison they remain under the ordinary closed regime and not in the special one, where security measures are stricter.
Likewise, he announced the opening of a new pavilion in the maximum security prison of Ancón I to house 150 highly dangerous inmates. “By order of the President, a pavilion is being implemented in the maximum security prison of Ancón I. Likewise, in Challapalca there are also one hundred more inmates, in Cochamarca, in Cerro de Pasco, one hundred inmates.”he indicated.
