The horrifying inferno that engulfed a prison in Honduras and claimed 355 lives or more didn‘t have to happen. In the months preceding this disaster, Honduran officials, beginning with President Porfirio Lobo, ignored multiple warnings that conditions at the jails were ripe for a calamity.

One report by the United Nations said overcrowding was out of control by any standard. On any given date, 800 prisoners were confined in a facility built for 500. Those numbers, outrageous in themselves, were bad enough, but the government compounded its failures by not exercising the sort of control required when jails are crammed far beyond capacity and inmates are forced to endure inhuman conditions. The fire swept through six barracks that had been crammed with 70 to 105 inmates each in four-level bunk beds.

When the fire started, according to news service reports, staffing called for 12 guards to be on duty, an inadequate number to begin with. Reportedly, however, only six actually showed up for work. Four of them never left their watch towers outside, leaving the two inside to cope with the impossible task of evacuating 852 people. A guard told The Associated Press that another guard held all the keys to the prison’s doors on the night of the fire.

The government‘s own human rights prosecutor said the nation’s prisons have no emergency systems in place to avert catastrophes like the one at the National Prison of Comayagua, so it could easily happen again at any of the remaining 23 prisons in the country. The prison lacked a facility for medical treatment or mental health care. The budget allows less than $1 per day per prisoner for food.

Even prisoners deserve better treatment. Government has a basic responsibility to ensure the safety of inmates in their charge and comply with minimum human-rights standards. In the case of Honduras, the injustice is compounded by the finding in the U.N. report that, nationwide, more than half of the country‘s 11,000 inmates are awaiting trial and many had never even been charged. With identification of the victims still under way, it’s unclear how many of those who died had never had their day in court.

The human rights situation in the jails mirrors the society at large. Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world -- 82 per 100,000 residents, compared to 5.5 per 100,000 in Florida -- and the police, prison guards and ranking government officials have been accused of complicity in wrongdoing, including the director of the national prison system. Many of the problems were outlined in a report in The Miami Herald in January. Less than one month ago, in this space, we labeled Honduras a disaster zone because of the deteriorating conditions.

In the wake of the fire at Comayagua, President Lobo has suspended National Prison Director Danilo Orellana and other top prison officials, but that is not enough. Honduras has experienced two other major prison fires in the last 10 years, one of which killed 69 people in 2003. Neglect of prison conditions is a chronic problem. An inquiry commission, under the umbrella of the United Nations or the Organization of American States, should investigate the events at the prison to determine the causes, recommend improvements, and follow through with action.

Earlier this month, the State Department appointed a veteran U.S. diplomat to help Honduras develop a strategy to combat its rising levels of violent crime. His first job should be to make sure that the government‘s own actions don’t amount to criminal negligence. --Ed.


The Miami Herald

(MCT Information Services)