Haltickling
2nd Level Green Feather
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2001
- Messages
- 4,353
- Points
- 0
I just watched an extremely interesting documentation on German TV. It was about "La Modelo", one of the world's strangest jails. It is located in Bogotà, Colombia, and it's the world's only jail completely organized by the inmates. The Colombian state hasn't got enough money for it, or so it seems.
The building was built for 2500 prisoners under the usual cramped South American conditions, but there are more than 5000 people living there now. Nobody knows the exact number, as the officials have 'forgotten' a lot of them. One of the two wings is controlled by the leftist guerilla organization, the other one by the right wing militia. The 150 wardens only control the sector between both wings, the entrance, and the surrounding walls. Only 2 wardens patrol each separate wing. While there are more than a thousand guns among the inmates (including Uzi's), only the wardens on the watch towers are armed. There are shoot-outs with fatal casualties every few weeks, and the wardens don't interfere as long as it's not an escape attempt.
The prisoners have to organize everything by themselves, including food and accommodation. They are financed by their organizations, and as the 'right' wing is supported by the cocaine mafia, it's much better equipped. Both wings have restaurants (including seafood and Italian specialties!), all imaginable kinds of shops, a jail within the jail, phone booths, toilets (self-financed; before that, all prisoners had to defecate in plastic bags and urinate in plastic water bottles), satellite TV, doctors, sport grounds, in short: all amenities of a normal living, except freedom. But all prisoners have to pay for the services, and the payment goes to the bosses of each wing. The 'ordinary' criminals who have no money or political protection must sleep in open air, on the concrete floor. They get fed one bowl of weak soup per day by the government, and many of them die. Even makeshift cardboard accommodation is rented space.
The leaders live in luxury suites with private bathrooms (yes, even the plumbing is financed by 'their' groups). They have armed bodyguards, cash in all the money, sell drugs and guns, and rule their wings with absolute power.
My emotions are running much too high to offer a personal comment here. I'm just informing you of the things I've seen on TV. I just have to share this with somebody, it has stirred me up too much to bear this alone. I doubt that I will sleep well tonight.
It clearly tells me to see our own petty bitching and small-world problems in a more global perspective. Thanks for listening!
The building was built for 2500 prisoners under the usual cramped South American conditions, but there are more than 5000 people living there now. Nobody knows the exact number, as the officials have 'forgotten' a lot of them. One of the two wings is controlled by the leftist guerilla organization, the other one by the right wing militia. The 150 wardens only control the sector between both wings, the entrance, and the surrounding walls. Only 2 wardens patrol each separate wing. While there are more than a thousand guns among the inmates (including Uzi's), only the wardens on the watch towers are armed. There are shoot-outs with fatal casualties every few weeks, and the wardens don't interfere as long as it's not an escape attempt.
The prisoners have to organize everything by themselves, including food and accommodation. They are financed by their organizations, and as the 'right' wing is supported by the cocaine mafia, it's much better equipped. Both wings have restaurants (including seafood and Italian specialties!), all imaginable kinds of shops, a jail within the jail, phone booths, toilets (self-financed; before that, all prisoners had to defecate in plastic bags and urinate in plastic water bottles), satellite TV, doctors, sport grounds, in short: all amenities of a normal living, except freedom. But all prisoners have to pay for the services, and the payment goes to the bosses of each wing. The 'ordinary' criminals who have no money or political protection must sleep in open air, on the concrete floor. They get fed one bowl of weak soup per day by the government, and many of them die. Even makeshift cardboard accommodation is rented space.
The leaders live in luxury suites with private bathrooms (yes, even the plumbing is financed by 'their' groups). They have armed bodyguards, cash in all the money, sell drugs and guns, and rule their wings with absolute power.
My emotions are running much too high to offer a personal comment here. I'm just informing you of the things I've seen on TV. I just have to share this with somebody, it has stirred me up too much to bear this alone. I doubt that I will sleep well tonight.
It clearly tells me to see our own petty bitching and small-world problems in a more global perspective. Thanks for listening!
Q
