Ecuador closes a prison and transfers its 204 inmates to other prisons

With this closure, Ecuador now has 35 prisons throughout its territory.

The closure of the prison seeks to avoid fights between gangs that dispute control of the prisons.

A total of 204 prisoners who were being held in the prison in the Ecuadorian province of Los Ríos were transferred to other prisons after that prison was closed due to failures in its infrastructure and high levels of overcrowding.

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The movement of the inmates was informed this Thursday by the National Comprehensive Care Service (SNAI) for Persons Deprived of Liberty, the state body in charge of the administration and control of Ecuadorian prisons.

In the Los Ríos prison there were 204 prisoners when its capacity was for 117 inmates, according to the latest SNAI statistical report, published in November, which implied an overcrowding of 74%.

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Without the Los Ríos prison, Ecuador’s prison system is left with 35 prisons with a capacity of 30,000 prisoners where in reality there are close to 32,000 inmatesaccording to the first prison census in Ecuador’s history, which concluded last week.

The closure of the Los Ríos prison is one of the actions taken by the Government of
Ecuador to appease the serious penitentiary crisis that has so far left more than 450 prisoners killed since 2020, most in a series of massacres between rival gangs who dispute the internal control of prisons.

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Behind this phenomenon is an insufficient contingent of prison guards, highly overcrowded prisons and a crime prevention policy that prioritizes imprisonment, according to reports from international organizations such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

EFE