The senior official said the incident is a result of overcrowding and a consequence of policies implemented by the previous administration of President Luis Lacalle Pou, contemplated in the Urgent Consideration Law, “which saw prison as the only solution.”

“We are talking about the highest incarceration rates in the world. Uruguay has the highest number of prisoners in relative terms in all of Latin America,” he noted.

He considered this justification for “facing a change in the regulatory framework regarding the prison system that even goes against what has been followed until now.”

Almost all of the crimes that occur outside occur in Uruguayan prisons: fraud, homicide, sexual abuse, private violence, threats, he admitted.

He emphasized that prison in Uruguay “does not disqualify one from committing crimes, whether inside or even with repercussions outside.”

For its part, the National Police Union (Sipolna) issued a statement requesting an urgent and structural response to what it considers “institutional negligence” in the country’s prisons.

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