In the prisons of Venezuela there was an overcrowding of 64.19% during 2022, with a prison population of 33,558 people out of a “real installed capacity” of 20,438 places, according to data from the Venezuelan Prison Observatory (OVP), which presented this Thursday your annual report.
«Venezuela has 52 detention centers, with a total installed capacity of 26,238. However, in 2022 only 45 centers remained operational for a real installed capacity of 20,438 parking spaces. This indicates overcrowding at critical risk,” the organization explained during a virtual press conference.
In Venezuela, the research indicates, only 17 detention centers (37.77%) house a prison population according to their installed capacity, while the remaining 28 (62.22%) are characterized by remaining “overcrowded.”
The OVP explained that, compared to previous years, in 2022 there was a decrease in the prison population of 4.5%, which is equivalent to 152 fewer prisoners than in 2021.
Thus, the penitentiary centers housed, by the end of last year, 30,998 men and 2,560 women, that is, for every 12 subjects deprived of liberty there was a woman in the same condition.
Only 2% of the total number of people deprived of liberty in Venezuela are foreigners, some 670 citizens, the NGO stressed.
«Conditions of confinement are getting worse and worse. No prison in the country has the minimum standards of confinement in accordance with the international legal framework, much less with a differentiated approach (to care for people with particular needs), “he pointed out.
He added that, in addition to overcrowding, the prison population is affected by poor access to basic services, “deficient or non-existent” food, lack of medical care and access to health, intra-prison violence and acts of corruption, among other problems. .
The OVP entry: Venezuelan prisons are 64% overcrowded was first published in El Informador Venezuela.
