Ecuador: report states prison population increased 122 percent in four years

insightcrime.org reported that the prison population in Ecuador has risen dramatically in the past four years, a phenomenon tied to the overuse of preventive detention, but also likely linked to the country’s ever-growing importance as a drug transit nation. In October 2007, the country registered 19,500 prisoners, which the country’s prosecutor general called a “record number,” according to El Comercio.

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The Organization of American States (OAS) reported a 2007 total of 18,675 prisoners. By 2009, the total number of prisoners in Ecuador had dropped to 10,881, according to OAS figures. Since then, the prison population has shot up again, reaching 24,203 prisoners as of October 2013, reported El Comercio. Just taking El Comercio’s numbers, this represents a 122 percent increase on the population of four years ago, and is 96 percent higher than the current official capacity of the system, 12,338. Read Article