Half of Honduras prison dead faced no charge
Thursday 16 February 2012
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EmailThe prisoners whose scorched bodies were carried out piece by piece this morning from a charred Honduran prison had been locked inside an overcrowded facility where most inmates had never been charged, let alone convicted.
More than half of the 856 inmates of the Comayagua farm prison north of Tegucigalpa were either awaiting trial or being held as suspected gang members, according to a report sent by the Honduran government this month to the United Nations.
A fire started by an inmate tore through the prison on Tuesday night, burning and suffocating screaming men in their locked cells as rescuers desperately searched for keys.
Officials confirmed 358 dead, making it the world's deadliest prison fire in a century.
Survivors told horrific tales of climbing walls to break the sheet metal roofing and escape - only to see prisoners in other cell blocks being burned alive.
Inmates were found stuck to the roofing, their bodies fused to the metal.
According to the report, on any given day there were about 800 inmates in a facility built for 500.
There were only 51 guards by day and only 12 at night when the fire struck.
The prison has no medical or mental health care and the budget allows less than 65p per day per prisoner for food.
Prisoners only needed to bear a gang tattoo to be incarcerated under the strict Honduran anti-gang laws, the report said.
President Porfirio Lobo suspended national prison system director Danilo Orellana and other top prison officials on Wednesday.
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