Overcrowding in prisons is a COVID-19   is  seen as  a  time bomb about after  the  detection of the first two cases in the Nueva Esperanza facility in Colón set off alarms, both for relatives and prisoners, as well as for lawyers, who are calling for action  reports TVN

More than 17,000 prisoners live in overcrowded conditions where there is no way to keep social distance as established by the Ministry of Health.

" They have them in a, in precarious conditions.  There are 250 in a compound,  with some working in the kitchen, It is a criminal action ”, denounced lawyer, Carlos Herrera Morán.

It is expected that new measures to be implemented by the penitentiary System to counter the spread of COVID-19 within the prisons will be announced soon.

Law 55 of 2003 allows for a reduction in sentence for those deprived of liberty for crimes of lesser impact and parole for those over 60 and the status of pregnant women is under  review