7 News Belize

Prison, Both Sides Now
posted (June 8, 2015)
On Friday, we showed you how the former Inmate Robinson Michael condemned the Kolbe Foundation Belize Central Prison for corruption and human rights violations against the inmate population in the facility. We also showed you how the Acting CEO of the Prison responded to each and every one of his allegations.

Well, at that opportunity to speak with the CEO, he gave us a tour of the facility to show that not only is the prison not taking advantage of the inmates, the administration is trying to help them become productive individuals when they finally leave the prison. Daniel Ortiz has that story:

Of course, former inmate Michael has a different take on the industrial zone. He referred to on the map he drew us up as the "Hitler Zone", and he says that it's not so much about rehabilitation as much as it is a money making venture. Here's how he explained it:

Acting CEO Virgilio Murillo broke it down for us and explained that the programs make only a supplementary amount of money annually which is invested back into keeping the projects alive. He told us that the food grown at the Prison is helps to cut down the food bill since they produce what the inmates can consume. He adds that the revenue generated from the industrial zone is only a fraction of the annual maintenance fee that Government fund the prison with. As you heard in our story, the headcount of inmates at the prisoners at the Kolbe prison is 1,530. Government gives them a $13.25 per inmate which calculates to 7+ million dollars annually. Of course, that total figure is dependent on the headcount, and if it goes down, then the maintenance fee goes down.

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