Ecuador's prisons blighted by state abandonment -IACHR

FILE PHOTO: A woman reacts outside the judicial police station after prisoners were killed and injured in overnight violence at Penitenciaria del Litoral prison, in Guayaquil, Ecuador November 13, 2021. REUTERS/Santiago Arcos

QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador's prison system, blighted by state abandonment and the absence of a comprehensive policy, has unprecedented high levels of violence and corruption and poor conditions for inmates, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) said on Thursday.

A delegation from the IACHR visited Ecuador in December after violent clashes in prisons across the country saw 316 prisoners killed in 2021, up from 46 deaths in the previous year, a nearly sevenfold increase.