COVID-19 and Prisons in Latin America
Illustration: Chuan Ming Ong
By Natalia Pires de Vasconcelos, Maíra Rocha Machado, Libardo José Ariza, and Mario Andrés Torres
The Coronavirus pandemic has affected Latin America deeply. The effects of the pandemic are reverberating most acutely across the broken prison systems in this region with searing inequalities. Most of what is happening now inside prison walls could and should have been anticipated by legislators, courts, and policy officials. The reality of health and human rights in prisons in the region has long been known by the state and largely ignored – during the pandemic this has been no different.
