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Raphael Rowe spends the week at Paraguay’s Tacumbú jail in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay in episode one of Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons. Rowe and viewers across the world cannot quite believe the conditions of the prison on top of the high death rate and recurring riots. Express.co.uk has everything you need to know.
Why are there riots at Tacumbu?
Overcrowding
As mentioned in the Netflix documentary series Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons, Tacumbú jail houses approximately 3,000 inmates and has just 35 guards working in the prison.
The prison was opened in 1956 and was designed just to hold 300 inmates, before being upgraded to 1,500.
As of 2020, it is home to approximately 3,085 convicts with many sleeping outside on the ground.
Poor living conditions
Conditions in the prison are so poor, there have been numerous riots over the years against living standards.
The episode features clips of inmates scavenging for food in the prison’s waste and selling plastic bottles to earn money.
With a lack of guards and levels of corruption, violence is very common in Tacumbu alongside murders and riots.
Riots often break out in prison when the men are hungry.
Rowe worked in the kitchen of the Tinglado section of the prison, where the men sleep outside where he learns dinner is served at 5pm because there are fewer guards at night and no daylight.
The prisoner explains night is when inmates most like fight over food and violence breaks out, leading to murder.
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Drug Abuse and Weapons
Drug abuse is also a major problem alongside inmates openly carrying weapons or making them out of the prison cell bars which are supposed to keep them contained.
Speaking to InSight Crime in 2019, former director of Tacumbú prison, Jorge
Fernández explained why drug abuse and violence is so common.
He also explained visitors could be smuggling drugs into the prison.
Fernández said: “We have found marijuana, cocaine and crack. Controls are currently being stepped up, but we don’t have the necessary infrastructure to confront the whole situation.
“We now have a new administration that is looking at a way to obtain the necessary technology to detect drugs.
“We do not have a scanner for the men’s wings, we only have a working scanner for the women’s wing.
“The scanners could be used to see inside bags, to see if there is anything there.
“Right now, it’s a lot of effort. Paraguay allows four weekly visits to prisons on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
“On a Tuesday or Thursday, 850-900 people enter but that climbs up to 2,000 on Saturday or Sunday. So [with inmates plus visitors], there are between 6,000 and 7,000 people here on weekends.”
Gang violence
There is also gang violence within the prison which is often triggered by events in other prisons in Paraguay.
For example, at neighbouring prison San Pedro, Members of the Primer Comando da Capital (PCC) massacred 10 members of the rival gang, the Rotela Clan.
In November 2019, the nephew of Rotela Clan leader Javier Armando Rotela was murdered at Tacumbú.
Inside Tacumbu Prison
As the documentary states, there is on average a death every two weeks in the prison.
In 2019, approximately 18 inmates died while incarcerated the prison.
Speaking to Insight Crime, Fernández reflected on the death rate.
He said: “Around 15 to 18 [inmates] died. More than half were due to natural causes and the others died in fights.
“But the prisoners remain quiet, they never say who was to blame or that it was a fight.”
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Just inside the gates of Tacumbú, there is a poignant reminder of just how dangerous the prison can be the guards who work there.
There is a shrine called The Virgin of Mercy, in honour of the guards who have lost their lives working in the prison.
One of the guards goes on to explain how a former colleague was killed in a riot, another killed in an ambush in a massive escape, a third was beheaded and the fourth died in a fire, started by the prisoners during a riot.
The guard explained: “When the riot started he was taken hostage and he was shot.”
In 2011, 120 inmates rioted in the prison, taking two prison guards as hostages.
Earlier this year, nine inmates went on hunger strike and sewed their mouth shuts in protest at the prison’s squalid conditions.
In 2016, six people – five inmates and a prison guard – died in a fire at the prison
On the other hand, the prison to some of the inmates is a place of luxury, with bars, shops, luxury laundry facilities, a tattoo parlour and pool tables.
Speaking to The Express, Rowe reflected on his time in Tacumbu.
He said: “When I walked through Tacumbú penitentiary in Paraguay, I could not believe my eyes.
“I’ve seen inside many prisons and have witnessed all kinds of conditions but I had never seen anything like this.”
Rowe reflected on the “overcrowded slums” where men took drugs and would kill each other over a mattress.
He continued: “It was terrifying to see guys sleeping outdoors in the open air, openly using drugs and carrying knives.
“But in Tacumbú, the authorities don’t run it, the prisoners do.”
Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons is streaming on Netflix now
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