30% of prisoners have coronavirus – Villavicencio, Colombia

<p>In the city of Villavicencio, over 700 inmates and guards, 30% of the prison population, were reported to have contracted the coronavirus.</p> <p>In April the Colombian government announced that they would release 4,000 low-risk inmates under house arrest to help curb the spread of the virus however three weeks later only 320 were released.</p> <p>According to Nelson Barrera, a representative of the prison’s staff, little can be done due to limited space and overcrowding. This has made it “impossible to establish isolation zones required by the Secretary of Health”.</p> <p>The unsanitary conditions and overcrowding of prisons have led to riots throughout prisons in Latin America in recent weeks.</p> <p>Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, maintains that there is considerable concern over the conditions of these prisons in the Americas.</p> <p>Read more from <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/colombia-30-percent-prisoners-in…">Al Jazeera.</a></p>