Violence in the South American Prison System

The world in which we live is increasingly populated, complicated, and violent. With the proliferation of crime globally, the number of individuals behind bars, either awaiting trials or convicted is larger than it has ever been in any time of recorded human history (Carroll, 1998). One especially active prison community can be found in the nations of South America for a variety of reasons. Because of this, issues of human rights, prison reform, and the like come to the surface and demand closer analysis and discussion.

Ultimately, this research will accomplish the following: provide and support an explanation for the high rates of violence within many prison systems in South America and develop a set of “best practice” solutions to alleviate this violence and demonstrate how the recommendations are in line with legal standards that are emerging around the globe.

Explanation for High Violence Rates within Many South American Prison Systems

To begin, in fairness, it needs to be understood that no prisons, in even the most developed and civilized nations of the world, are pleasant places. By the very nature of any prison, it is a place that is designed to remove from society those individuals who have been found to be a danger to that society. As such, a prison is essentially a storehouse for the worst that humanity has to offer: rapists, drug dealers, killers, thieves, and the list goes on and on. Obviously, when people of these types are put together in the same environment, it is akin to explosive chemicals being mixed together. Even so, given the nature and purpose of prisons, there are still rights of individuals, basic living conditions and the like that must not be ignored, but are apparently an afterthought in South American prisons, creating a hotbed of violence when those held in the prisons, when abused and pushed to the breaking point, act out like preverbal children, destroying any person that they presume to be a threat to them (Katz, 2007).

The first factor that contributes to the level of violence in South American prisons is the very nature of the inmates of the prisons. Conceding the earlier point that prisons are not places for friendly, productive people to congregate, in South America, prisons are typically filled with the most hardened criminals imaginable- drug kingpins, paid assassins, and the like. Because many of the South American nations, while readily denied by the governments of these nations, have corrupt justice systems, wealthy criminals can often buy their way either to more comfortable prison accommodations, or avoid imprisonment outright. Therefore, the prisons are basically the equivalent of human trash bins (Katz, 2007).