Half of Honduran Prison's Inmates Weren't Convicted of Anything

With a death toll of 358, the Comayagua fire was the worst prison fire in a century.

Many of the 358 people killed in the fire at the Comayagua farm prison in Honduras had not yet been convicted or even charged of any crimes, according to reports. The prison fire, the worst in a century, erupted late Tuesday night and killed nearly half of the facility's 856 inmates. A report from the Honduran government to the UN indicated that more than half of all inmates in the prison were being held in pre-trial custody, or were being held on suspicion of being in a gang. The report, obtained by Associated Press, showed that:

... 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.

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 UN had long criticized Honduras for the practice of locking up suspected gang members without trials. Honduran President Porfirio Lobo has since fired the country's national prisons director and a slew of other top corrections officials.