Cortizo ok with prison admin report

President Laurentino Cortizo, said on Thursday, January 9 that he feels “satisfied” with the “administrative” report in relation to the massacre in the La Joyita prison, which occurred on December 17, which left 13 dead and 14 injured

“The other investigation of what actually happened in the incidents is handled by the Public Ministry, ”said Cortizo.

In the report, high-ranking officials from the Ministries of Public Security and Government were cleared of administrative responsibilities and processes for the massacre.

However, the director in charge of the prison, Alexandra Vence, was dismissed. In addition, the administrative process will begin with the custodian Javier Carter, head of internal security of the prison; to Ismael Arguelles, who was the head of external security of the penal center; and José Vidal Franco Calderón, prison chief.

Processes will not be applied to Walter Hernández, director of the Penitentiary System; and Deputy Director Luis Gordón, who had been separated from their positions. Nor will there be a process for commissioners José Melamed, Alberto Correa, and Corporal Roberto Pinto reports La Prensa.

On the current situation of the prisons, Cortizo said that work has to be started “from the outside in. We can’t have a prison with the fences we have right now … there are places where there is no fence.”

He also spoke of the need for new penal centers in Colón and Darién, ease the large number of prisoners in La Joya and La Joyita.

In his  report, the Minister of Public Security, Rolando Mirones , made an extensive account of the shortcomings of the La Joya Prison Complex , which houses the La Joyita, La Joya, and La Nueva Joya prisons. He said there are no perimeter walls, nor video surveillance systems.