Inmates in Honduras prison push for work opportunities to rebuild lives: Video
In La Tolva prison, located 50 km east of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, conflicts between rival gangs were once frequent.
However, after government intervention brought relative calm, some inmates are now requesting employment opportunities to help them reintegrate into society.
The facility houses 1,755 members of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), one of the largest gangs in the country, all overseen by a security force of 200 soldiers and guards.
“We want to make a request directly to the State, to private companies and public entities: we as prisoners want an opportunity for employment and social reintegration,” Ramiro Oliva, a representative of the inmates who prefers to use a pseudonym, told AFP.
This change in attitude follows the relocation of inmates from the rival Barrio 18 gang to El Pozo prison, which helped reduce violence in La Tolva. Before this move, the prison had witnessed serious clashes, resulting in 24 deaths since its opening in 2017, according to the National Human Rights Commissioner.
Honduras has long struggled with gang violence, prompting a state of emergency in December 2022 that allows for arrests without court orders. The country's homicide rate was reported at 34.5 per 100,000 residents last year, a decrease from 44.7 in 2019, but still significantly high compared to a record 86.5 in 2011.
Lieutenant Colonel Karllthers Medina, the prison director, outlined a rehabilitation program called The Three Rs: rehabilitation, re-education, and reintegration. Launched after President Xiomara Castro ordered increased discipline within the country’s prisons, the program aims to equip inmates with skills to support themselves upon release.
This initiative came in response to a violent incident in which Barrio 18 members killed and burned 46 MS-13 inmates in a women’s prison.
As part of The Three Rs, a group of nine inmates recently delivered 16 chairs to a local school, dressed in orange pants and cream T-shirts.
Inside the prison, around twenty inmates are engaged in making concrete blocks, which are donated to nearby schools. Additionally, about fifty inmates participated in a session on "morals and ethics."
