Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso announced on Tuesday that some 5,000 prisoners will be pardoned to reduce the overcrowding in prisons where massacres among inmates took place with more than 320 deaths in 2021.
“I hope that at least 5,000 people deprived of liberty are released,” said the president.
He added that his plan is “to end overcrowding by the end of the year and thus have a much more favorable environment for security and for social rehabilitation work inside the prisons.”
In the 65 prisons in Ecuador, with a capacity for about 30,000 people, there are about 39,000 prisoners (30% overpopulation). Of the total, 15,000 are without sentence.
Lasso pointed out that on Monday he signed a decree, through which he established “the conditions for the pardon and that the judges be the ones who resolve the pardon under the established parameters” in this way.
The Executive is also promoting a so-called Social Rehabilitation Public Policy, which with an initial budget of 27 million dollars will develop plans for work, justice, education, culture, sports, social assistance and human rights for inmates.
Ecuadorian penitentiaries were in 2021 the scene of bloody clashes for power between inmate members of gangs linked to drug trafficking, which left more than 320 dead in prison massacres among the worst in Latin America.
Lasso stated that the decree will lead to “pardon to reduce overcrowding in prisons and also to protect many innocent citizens who have committed minor crimes, who have made mistakes in their lives, but who cannot be subjected to blackmail, to pressure.” in prisons.
He pointed out that the presidential document was agreed upon with the Constitutional Court and the Prosecutor’s Office.
The benefit will be for prisoners with convictions for robbery, theft, fraud or breach of trust, according to the national press.