Some of the prisoners in an overcrowded Honduras jail who were killed in a fiery blaze had never been charged – let alone convicted – of any crime, according to an internal Honduran government report.
According to The Associated Press, more than half of the 856 inmates of the Comayagua farm prison north of the Central American country’s capital were either awaiting trial or being held as suspected gang members, according to a report sent by the Honduran government this month to the United Nations.
STORY: Over 350 Dead In Honduras Fire
The prison was grossly overcrowded. On any given day there were about 800 inmates in a facility built for 500. There were only 51 guards by day and just 12 at night, the case at the time of the fire.
A fire started by an inmate tore through the prison Tuesday night, burning and suffocating screaming men in their locked cells as rescuers desperately searched for keys. Officials confirmed 358 dead, making it the world’s deadliest prison fire in a century.
Survivors told horrific tales of climbing walls to break the sheet metal roofing and escape, only to see prisoners in other cell blocks being burned alive. Inmates were found stuck to the roofing, their bodies fused to the metal.
The prison has no medical or mental health care and the budget allows less than $1 per day per prisoner for food.
Prisoners only needed to bear a simple tattoo to be incarcerated under the strict Honduran anti-gang laws, the report said.
The U.N. condemns the practice as a violation of international law.
On Thursday morning, officials continued their investigation at the prison, where murals of Catholic saints, Jesus Christ and psalms stand out in an otherwise miserable place. Two palm trees flank the front entrance where a sign reads: “Let there be justice, even if the world perishes.”
Families of the prisoners killed are reeling after the fire and human rights groups along with the U.S. government has called into question the conditions inside the prison, saying that many of the inmates had mental illnesses, as well as tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.
