VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHGT #1087/01 2402218
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 272218Z AUG 08
FM AMEMBASSY GUATEMALA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5978
INFO RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 4936

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 001087 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT PLEASE PASS TO WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE 
WHA FOR GSNIDLE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM PGOV KJUS GT
SUBJECT: MERIDA INITIATIVE: GUATEMALAN PRISON CONDITIONS 
 
REF: GUATEMALA 592 
 
¶1. Summary: Guatemala's prison system is in desperate need of 
reform, according to officials who have worked on efforts to 
improve prison conditions under the previous and current 
administrations.  Inadequate security measures, overcrowding, 
and ineffective rehabilitation programs, compounded by an 
inadequate budget, continue to undermine the Guatemalan 
Penitentiary System's ability to effectively control 
prisoners and to improve the recidivism rate.  Embassy 
believes that resources from the Merida Initiative can be 
used to build a more secure and humane prison system, but the 
GOG will have to increase its leadership on this issue.  End 
Summary. 
 
Inadequate Security 
------------------- 
¶2. On August 18, PolOffs accompanied James Fox, visiting PAO 
speaker and Program Director of the Insight Prison Project in 
California, on a visit of Pavon Prison, Pavoncito Preventive 
Detention Center, and a prison facility for women near 
Guatemala City.  During this visit, PolOffs spoke with 
current and former officials of the Guatemalan penitentiary 
system.  They all highlighted inadequate security measures as 
one of the biggest problems facing the country's penitentiary 
system. 
 
¶3. According to Jacobo Aguilar, Deputy Director of Social 
Rehabilitation for the Guatemalan Penitentiary System, there 
are 1,200 guards to police 7,950 prisoners nationwide, and 
only 300 of those guards are on duty at any one time.  In 
Pavon Prison, authorities control only the perimeter of the 
prison, while prisoners essentially have complete control 
over the interior.  The army is sometimes used to augment 
police control of prison perimeters.  Christhiann Ponciano, 
an attorney who served as advisor to the Berger government on 
the country's penal system, remarked that prison guards only 
enter the interior of the prison unarmed out of fear that the 
prisoners, most of whom have access to weapons including 
knives, guns and even grenades, may seize their weapons. 
Gangs are active inside prisons, and occasionally attack 
prison guards (reftel).  Further weakening prison security, 
according to Ponciano, is the uncontrolled use of cash within 
Guatemalan prisons.  Ponciano believes that the system makes 
it easy for prisoners to bribe guards to allow family members 
to bring in contraband such as weapons and drugs. 
 
¶4. Jose Toledo, former Presidential Commissioner for the 
Reform of the Penitentiary System during the Berger 
Administration, highlighted inadequate infrastructure, lack 
of biometric controls, and insufficient training for prison 
guards as other weaknesses in the prisons' security measures. 
 He also highlighted that prison officials are often unable 
or unwilling to implement security controls such as 
prohibition on the use of cell phones within prisons.  The 
use of cell phones allows gang members to continue extortion 
and other illegal activities while imprisoned.  Toledo 
commented that there are currently no maximum security 
prisons in Guatemala that meet international standards. 
 
Overcrowding 
------------ 
¶5. Overcrowding continues to be a problem in Guatemala's 
prisons and pre-trial detention centers.  Guatemala's 
penitentiary system has the capacity to house 5,000 inmates, 
but according to Deputy Director Aguilar, there are currently 
7,950 prisoners incarcerated in Guatemala's 18 penal 
institutions, 4,000 of whom are held in pre-trial detention 
centers.  In some penal institutions, the overcrowding rate 
is considerably higher than the national rate of 59 percent. 
In Pavoncito, for example, 374 prisoners are housed in a 
QIn Pavoncito, for example, 374 prisoners are housed in a 
space built for 150.  Due to inadequate space in prisons 
nationwide, convicted prisoners are sometimes housed with 
those awaiting trial. 
 
¶6. According to former government advisor Ponciano, the 
Guatemalan justice system takes approximately three to four 
years to process a case to conclusion, and during this time 
innocent persons may be incarcerated with convicted 
criminals.  The unfortunate result, according to former 
presidential commissioner Toledo, is that innocent inmates 
may leave the penitentiary system having had to violently 
defend themselves against convicted prisoners.  There is only 
one prison for women and one pre-trial detention center for 
women in Guatemala, and because of space shortages there are 
cases where men and women are housed in the same prison, 
according to Aguilar. 
 
Insufficient Budget 
------------------- 
¶7. Deputy Director Aguilar and former government advisor 
Ponciano believe that the budget for Guatemala's penitentiary 
system is insufficient to address the system's many needs. 
According to Aguilar, the 2007 budget was approximately $24 
million or about $3,000 per prisoner, compared to the 
approximately $42,000 spent per year on each prisoner in the 
California penal system, according to Insight Prison 
Project's James Fox.  In Pavon, food accounted for 
approximately 80 percent of the prison's budget, leaving only 
a small amount to cover remaining expenses.  The national 
prison budget does not contemplate the purchase of medicine 
or the provision of health care to prisoners who, according 
to Ponciano, are often forced to obtain medicine from family 
members.  Aguilar commented that the penitentiary system 
needs a dedicated hospital to adequately provide for 
prisoners' needs. 
 
Rehabilitation Programs Fall Short 
---------------------------------- 
¶8. Work and education programs within Guatemalan prisons 
attempt to rehabilitate prisoners and decrease the recidivism 
rate, which is currently 90 percent, according to Ponciano. 
In Pavon, inmates are allowed to run their own private 
businesses by selling products on the local market with the 
help of family members.  Such businesses include a bakery, a 
factory that manufactures soccer balls from nylon rope, and a 
shop that makes linings for wedding dresses.  Approximately 
45 percent of Guatemala's prison population participate in 
similar work programs, according to Deputy Director Aguilar, 
almost all of which operate independently of the prison 
system. 
 
¶9. Education programs also attempt to lower the recidivism 
rate in prisons or at least occupy the prisoners' time. 
There are currently 1,700 inmates nationwide who are either 
learning to read or write, pursuing an elementary education, 
or studying for their high school diploma.  In Pavoncito, 18 
inmates serve as instructors to their fellow prisoners, and 
120 prisoners take classes each day with the benefit of 
computers donated by an NGO.  With a national recidivism rate 
of 90 percent, however, Ponciano is critical of the 
effectiveness of the rehabilitation programs.  He does not 
believe that Guatemala's prisons are rehabilitating prisoners 
but rather serving as centers where individuals organize into 
criminal groups. 
 
Comment 
------- 
¶10. Lax security measures within Guatemalan prisons 
facilitate criminal activity outside prison walls.  The 
number of prisoners nationwide is disproportionately low 
given the country's high crime rate.  The low number is a 
reflection of Guatemala's high level of impunity and low 
conviction rate.  The Guatemalan penitentiary system needs to 
be reformed to effectively address weak security measures and 
overcrowding, and to improve rehabilitation programs.  The 
government can facilitate these changes by allocating more 
resources and reinstituting the Presidential Commission for 
the Reform of the Penitentiary System, but more international 
assistance, such as that contemplated under the Merida 
Initiative, is sorely needed. 
McFarland