HomeNewsBriefEcuador Mass Prison Break Indicative of Overcrowding, Corruption
BRIEF

Ecuador Mass Prison Break Indicative of Overcrowding, Corruption

ECUADOR / 16 DEC 2013 BY JAMES BARGENT EN

Fifty-five inmates escaped from an Ecuador prison by rushing the guards at an undermanned gate, evidence of the rapid overcrowding of Ecuador's under-resourced prison system, as well as alleged official corruption.

The inmates escaped as they were being moved through Quito's Provisional Detention Center (CDP) to receive visitors on December 15, reported El Comercio. The prison is located in a built up area and the fugitives were able to disappear into the crowds.

The guard manning the door inmates escaped through reported she had been forced to open it as she was threatened by a prisoner with a shank. With just 24 guards -- five of which were off sick, while another four had been temporarily reassigned that day -- for over 1,400 inmates, the other guards were unable to regain control in time.

However, government officials have indicated they believe the breakout was facilitated by corrupt guards and possibly even prison directors, highlighting the suspicious absence of the nine guards on the same day, reported La Hora.

The mass breakout led to a manhunt led by close to a 1,000 police, and according to the most recent reports 20 inmates have so far been recaptured.

InSight Crime Analysis

The breakout illustrates a worrying trend in Ecuador's prisons -- overcrowding. In 2007, Ecuador's prison population was approximately 19,500 inmates. By October 2013, this had risen to 24,203 prisoners, who are housed in prisons built for 12,338 people, according to El Comercio.

This makes conditions seen in Quito's CDP, which holds over three times as many prisoners as it was built for, but still retains just a handful of low paid guards, increasingly common. Not only does this make controlling the prison population more difficult, it also makes corruption among the guards, who earn just $622 a month and often work in poor conditions with 24-hour shifts, much more likely.

SEE ALSO: Coverage of Prisons

According to experts consulted by El Comercio, one of the main reasons for this has been the exponential growth in the use of preventative detention -- incarcerating those awaiting trial.

There are few signs that these conditions have yet to create the sort of ultra-violent, inmate-run criminal finishing schools seen in countries like Venezuela and El Salvador, but these countries should act as a warning as to where Ecuador could be heading if it doesn't take action.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 4 OCT 2021

Military intelligence has revealed a flow of arms from Chile and Peru into Ecuador along its southern border, highlighting the…

ELITES AND CRIME / 26 AUG 2022

Venezuela's prisons have failed to stop the country's most dangerous criminals, these can run criminal empires from behind bars.

COCAINE / 28 FEB 2022

The assassination of a suspected Albanian drug trafficker in Ecuador is another reminder of the increasing presence of Balkan trafficking…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…