El Rodeo Prison Riot in Venezuela by John Dewar Gleissner
The El Rodeo prison in Venezuela was built to handle 750 prisoners. At the time of the 2011 riot there, it held 3,500 in filthy conditions. Venezuela's correctional system as a whole contains almost four (4) times the number of inmates it was designed to incarcerate. Overcrowding always causes problems, whether it takes place in prison or in a laboratory testing white rats. Overcrowding reduces the level of control wardens have over conditions, increases tension, brings about an exponential increase in violations of personal space and promotes gang activity and violence. Divided into Unit One and Unit Two, El Rodeo Prison holds some dangerous criminals. But over half of the Venezuelan prison population is being held before trial, because of the slow Venezuelan judicial system.
In the case of the Venezuelan correctional system, officials often let gangs run the prison while the guards mainly keep people from escaping. This uncaring procedure has through the years given rise to multiple horror stories in Venezuela. Prison gangs sometime video their murders. Prison officials sometimes permit smuggling of drugs, guns and ammunition into the prison. When El Rodeo prisoners obtained access to a.50 caliber machine gun, multiple AK-47s and hand grenades, corruption was obvious. After the initial violence at El Rodeo, but before it ended, two top El Rodeo correctional officers were arrested for permitting guns and ammunition in the El Rodeo units they supervised.
Initially in El Rodeo, two gangs fought each other and killed a couple dozen prisoners. The death toll increased as state security forces attempted to re-gain control. Prisoner deaths at one unit increased the resolve of the other unit to hold out and not surrender to the impressive military force brought in to quell the riot. Many prisoners were transferred from El Rodeo to other Venezuelan prisons as security forces dealt with the situation. This transfer creates additional prisoner worries: transferred prisoners fear they will be attacked and killed by rival gangs at their new prisons.
Conditions in American prisons are not likely to degenerate to Venezuelan standards, thanks to the U.S. Constitution and 42 U.S.C. §1983. When human rights in Venezuela are eroding across the board, massive corruption, inhumanity and riots are not surprising. But events in Venezuela hold valuable lessons about the destructive power of incarceration. The Venezuelan prison system pushes the destructive power of incarceration to a more harmful degree. American prisons are cleaner, less violent and more orderly versions of hell, but have also seen criminal prison gangs grow in power. American correctional institutions contain depravity, gangs, psychological torture, idleness, drug smuggling, violence, rape and overcrowding. We always see problems more clearly in others.
Prisons were invented as reformatories, to make people penitent, and for that purpose have failed spectacularly. To reform prisons, we should look at how the United States of America controlled crime when the U.S. Constitution was written. In fact, incarceration reform can begin by asking a simple question: What would George Washington do?
In the case of the Venezuelan correctional system, officials often let gangs run the prison while the guards mainly keep people from escaping. This uncaring procedure has through the years given rise to multiple horror stories in Venezuela. Prison gangs sometime video their murders. Prison officials sometimes permit smuggling of drugs, guns and ammunition into the prison. When El Rodeo prisoners obtained access to a.50 caliber machine gun, multiple AK-47s and hand grenades, corruption was obvious. After the initial violence at El Rodeo, but before it ended, two top El Rodeo correctional officers were arrested for permitting guns and ammunition in the El Rodeo units they supervised.
Initially in El Rodeo, two gangs fought each other and killed a couple dozen prisoners. The death toll increased as state security forces attempted to re-gain control. Prisoner deaths at one unit increased the resolve of the other unit to hold out and not surrender to the impressive military force brought in to quell the riot. Many prisoners were transferred from El Rodeo to other Venezuelan prisons as security forces dealt with the situation. This transfer creates additional prisoner worries: transferred prisoners fear they will be attacked and killed by rival gangs at their new prisons.
Conditions in American prisons are not likely to degenerate to Venezuelan standards, thanks to the U.S. Constitution and 42 U.S.C. §1983. When human rights in Venezuela are eroding across the board, massive corruption, inhumanity and riots are not surprising. But events in Venezuela hold valuable lessons about the destructive power of incarceration. The Venezuelan prison system pushes the destructive power of incarceration to a more harmful degree. American prisons are cleaner, less violent and more orderly versions of hell, but have also seen criminal prison gangs grow in power. American correctional institutions contain depravity, gangs, psychological torture, idleness, drug smuggling, violence, rape and overcrowding. We always see problems more clearly in others.
Prisons were invented as reformatories, to make people penitent, and for that purpose have failed spectacularly. To reform prisons, we should look at how the United States of America controlled crime when the U.S. Constitution was written. In fact, incarceration reform can begin by asking a simple question: What would George Washington do?
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