The Dominican Republic is under the scrutiny due to murders police officers have carried out against prisoners. According to Amnesty International, Dominican officers have been mistreating detainees in their prisons. The spokesperson for the Police Department said that officers accused of murders will be prosecuted. However, he also focused on the deaths and injuries of guards and soldiers and wanted their deaths recognized before he spoke about the deaths of prisoners. A total of 260 prisoners were killed in 2010 due to officer violence. Officers have been accused of withholding food and water from prisoners and suffocating or hanging them by handcuffs off the wall.The police claim that the prisoners deaths were caused by an "exchange of gunfire." However, the evidence does not show this statement.
This type of violence should not be occurring in the prison system. A result of this is corruption. It is estimated that 12,000 officers have been let go between 2007 and 2010 due to corruption. The fact that the prison officers are depriving the prisoners of food and water is violating the human right of food. Also they are violating many human rights when they are killing them in prison, such as, life, liberty and security of a person, and humane treatment when detained or imprisoned. It is hard to shed more importance on one human right over another because there are so many that have been violated. Clearly forcing someone’s head into a plastic bag is considered inhumane treatment. A justification may be that some prisoners display violence against the officers and the officers retaliate but officers should not be responsible for so many deaths. Low salaries are a factor as to why police officers are displaying such violence. They only bring in about $140 a month.
Do you think that police officers should be able to continually talk life into there own hands by killing inmates in jail?
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/10/26/dominican-police-tortured-and-killed-hundreds-says-amnesty-report/
Unfortunately this is a very serious problem in many parts of Latin America. The prison systems are a disgrace to the governments in the region. The officers that run the jails are often very corrupt and violent, however so are the inmates. There are two sides, the violence of the officers, and the violence of the prisoners. Do not let this report fool you, prisoners in Latin America are VERY dangerous in many cases. I know several people from different countries that were given their first guns when they went to jail. They even beat up or killed their first person after entering a prison. Often the officers have to protect themselves from the violence behind the bars. It is a constant battle between who is more justified in their actions the police officers or the inmates. If the officers could be paid more it is possible they may change, however the way society portrays the criminals is formulating the officers opinions. They will always view the inmates as bad and thus treat them inhumane.
ReplyDelete