Early this morning (6:30 A.M. our time), in Santiago, Chile, there was a fire in the prison. It was set off intentionally in the very early morning hours, and was finally put out three hours later. It killed at least 83 of the inmates, with 14 others severely injured. One of the inmates notified national television using an illegal cell phone. Since Wednesdays are visiting days, family members were hysterical outside the prison after they learned people had been killed in the fire. The article describes the conditions of the prison as "extremely inhumane" with over 1900 inmates living in a space that was designated for only 700. Apparently, guards were laughing and taking pictures of the inmates that were puking because of the smoke. Firefighters weren't even let in for awhile.
This story makes me very sad. Although all the prisoners obviously did something wrong to be put in prison, it's not fair that their living conditions were so horrible. The point of prison is to keep criminals away from other people in order for them to pay for their mistake, but not to torture them. Like one woman standing outside the prison said, "There aren't animals in the prison, there are people who made mistakes." I also think it was extremely barbaric for the prison guards to simply laugh at the prisoners who were in danger. I think it could be considered more of a crime to torture these inmates than what the inmates actually did to get into prison.
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