VIOLENCE IN SOUTH AMERICA

Violence in Prisons of South America

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Violence in Prisons of South America



Introduction

The population of the world is increasing immensely, and is a major factor that makes the world complicated and violent. With global crime proliferation, a number of suspects awaiting conviction and trails or behind bars is larger than ever before in the human history (Braswell, Montgomery & Lombardo, 1994). It is reported by the active prison community that violence in prison is increasing at a high rate in South America due to several reasons such as prison reform, issues of human rights, and the like come to demand and surface closer discussion and analysis.

Discussion

The notion of fairness is not present in the boundaries of prison, even in the most civilized and developed countries of the world that are considered to be pleasant places to live. Prison refers to a place where individuals are incarcerated who is considered to be a threat for society. Prison serves as a storehouse for the most horrible, which humanity and civilization has to offer such as thieves, killers, drug dealers, rapists and many others. It is evident that when such individuals are placed together in a prison the environment becomes more complex and violent, as all threats are mixed together. Despite that provided the purpose and nature of penitentiary, but it is a fact that prisoners also have rights as other human beings such as basic necessities (food and shelter), which cannot be ignored. However, prisoners in the prison of South America face a horrified and hotbed of violence such as act out like preverbal children, pushed and abused to the breaking point, and destroying any individual that they assume to be a danger to them (Howard, Hume & Oslender, 2007).

One of the major contributors of violence in prison is because of overcrowding. In Venezuela, the rate of overcrowding varies from 117.4% to 166.9% in the year 2009. In EI Salvador, the population of prison was reported to be more than 300% in accordance to the capacity of prison in 2010, reported by the Rapporteur. Moreover, pre-trail imprisonment and delays in procedure is also a prime factor of overcrowding. For instance, it is reported that 14,144 of 20,947 population in the year 2008 waiting for their trail.

The foremost prison violence in South America includes the cases of torture and rape with the prisoners by the law enforcement officers. Several human right organizations have raised their voice concern that none of the prisons in South America taken preventive measures against rape and torture, and demanded for the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture.

Primary factors that contribute in increasing the violence level in prisons of South America because of inmates' nature of the prisons. It is highly perceived that prisons are not places for people who are productive and friendly to gather together, in South America. Prisons in South America are in general filled with the hardened offenders paid assassins, imaginable- drug kingpins and ...