Public Story
Ghetto Dreamers
Ecuador has an overpopulation of 40% in prisons, with a total of 41,000 prisoners in conditions of overcrowding and violation of human rights. The Public Defender’s declared the penitentiary system in a state of emergency to generate a plan of containment in the face of alarming prison growth. With the approval of the new Penal Code in Ecuador, a new penitentiary system with maximum-security policies was established. The hardening of penalties for drug trafficking resulted in an increase from 11279 prisoners in 2009 to 41000 in 2019 the 30% due to the possession or sale of drugs. One in every three Ecuadorians is imprisoned due to this crime. In the Provisional Detention Center in Quito are 2000 prisoners and only has capacity for 800, in a Guayas Regional Rehabilitation Center are 10000 prisoners and only was designed for 4000. Commonly, jails are located in remote areas far from the center of the city. For inmate families distance represents a big problem in terms of time and money. This system along with unfavorable social and economic conditions and extreme isolation policies such as the prohibition of written letters or photographs, call restrictions, extreme body search for visitors create a hostile and emotionally fragile environment where both, prisoners and family members endure the sentence without a rehabilitation and social reintegration process.
11,818
