Prison guides indicate that they require riot gear and more personnel to prevent new violent events in this rehabilitation center.
Security cameras, body scanners and doors were smashed by inmates of the Cotopaxi jail last july 21. That day, the inmates staged a riot in which they were also destroyed electronic systems and signal inhibitors. Five months after the violent events, there is a millionaire contract to replace the control and surveillance systems of that prison.
The National Social Rehabilitation Service (Snai) will invest a total of $ 2.9 million. The acquisition and implementation of the equipment inside the prison will be in charge of Espe-Innovativa EP, cwith whom there is already an award resolution signed last October. The process is handled under the figure of a special regime, a figure of public contracting.
So that the mafias that operate from the prisons do not know details of the new controls and thus seek to damage the devices, Snai and the company in charge signed a confidentiality act to keep data confidential. The information will not be known for five years.
Under this veil of confidentiality will remain details of the technical specifications and the pre-contractual and contractual processes of the acquisition of “Technologies, equipment and security devices and prison surveillance ”.
It will also remain as a secret the design and implementation of technological systems security and internal communication mechanisms for prison security. The same will apply to all contractual processes for “construction, reconstruction, improvement and repowering ”of the structures.
Problems beyond technology
Two agents guarding the Cotopaxi prison told LA HORA that they have already seen technicians working inside the center. “They have focused mainly on the walls, bars and ceilings.”
They pointed out that for five months they have had internal control problems With the prisoners, only a body scanner is used to detect if a person has weapons or drugs hidden in their bodies or in their clothes. Mafias use people to enter prohibited objects. “When the power goes out, that scanner doesn’t work”Says one of the guides.
The consulted agents also request reclassification of prisoners. “Today we do not have in Cotopaxi internal that are in maximum, minimum and medium. The grouping by bands continues to be maintained ”. They also indicate that there are pavilions in which the prisoners have the keys to the padlocks of their own cells.
In Latacunga there are 150 guides (50 work each eight-hour shift) to control a population that is close to 5,000 inmates. For this reason, the agents asked for more personnel and anti-riot equipment to do their work. “We do not have with what to respond to gangs that are armed,” they indicated. They also assured that the video surveillance cameras are currently not functional. “That should be a priority.”
Another way of working
The colonel Mario Pazmiño, Former Army Intelligence chief and security analyst, points out that one must work differently for this million-dollar investment to be useful. “You have to work with a depth system. For example, that there are protocolos so that there is canine safety from the outside, sensors that prevent people from approaching, closed-circuit television and inhibitors that are controlled from a central location. If we don’t do so, we will continue con the same drug and gun situation“.
In June, in Cotopaxi, the bands they used explosives, long weapons and even grenades. Thus walls, doors and ceilings were destroyed. The data was confirmed by SNAI officials who toured the facilities to observe the damage. Prisoners also swept through the system that allowed cell doors to be controlled remotely.
