March 7, 2006
USD 932 million to be invested in Venezuela's prison system

(Daily Journal) - "The government is to invest almost USD 932 million (Bs.2 trillion) in Venezuela's prison system.

The money will be used to construct 10 new jails under what Interior and Justice Minister Jesse Chacón described as 'a strategic plan for the humanization of the prisons.'

The aim of this would be to bring a halt to violence inside penitentiaries by 2011, he added.

Spending on prisons this year has been set at Bs.386.2 billion, of which Bs.299.1 billion will be used to update or replace infrastructure. Work will start on the construction of three prisons budgeted at Bs.129 billion this year.

One of these new jails will be in-tended to replace the notorious La Pica prison, a second will be built in the capital and a third in the interior of the country. Another new jail is already under construction in Coro, Falcón state.

Chacón, who visited the project earlier this year, said it would open next September, while the other three would enter into use next year. Six 'community treatment' centers worth Bs.4.3 billion would also be built and 10 existing jails would be 'rehabilitated' at a cost of Bs.75.8 billion, he added (...)

Apart from infrastructure projects, Chacón said that Bs.111.1 billion would be allocated to attending to the needs of the prisoners, including an expansion of work and training facilities.

'Every community penitentiary will be converted into a center of endogenous development,' he explained, resorting to President Hugo Chávez' phrase for homegrown solutions to Venezuela's social and economic difficulties.

Chacón urged the Catholic and Evangelical Churches and human rights organizations to become in-volved in the 'humanization' of the prison system (...)".