Prison in Paraguay

April 1st, 2011.

I went to prison yesterday. If you know me at all, you’ll understand that I was absolutely thrilled to be there, and then was totally blown away by what I saw. I went with another PCV to this small prison in Emboscada, Paraguay, which is about 20 minutes from my house. I’ve been to about 6 prisons in the US, ranging from camps (very low security where there aren’t even fences around the facility) to maximum security prisons—both state and federal. This was the first time I’d ever been to a prison outside of the US. The prison in Emboscada was shut down about two or three years ago, mostly due to the fact that the facilities were really old (constructed in 1903), and that there was a great deal of violence and murders within the prison walls. They reopened just over a year ago and currently only house just over 100 men. We spoke to the warden, a few guards, and one inmate. (Yes, just a single inmate—I found that to be a bit strange.) The warden explained about the variety of classes (educational and vocational) offered at the prison, showed us an extensive library, and a bakery with brand new equipment. There is a great deal of construction going on right now, mostly by the inmates themselves, to build a new housing facility which will hold about 500 new inmates.

OK, I didn’t finish that blog entry. But, I did go back on Tuesday with my follow-up Volunteer. We were able to actually go in and enter the housing units this time. I can’t figure out if we were only allowed to see them the second time because: A) day 1 was a bad day, B) the first guard showing us around thought we were slightly delicate, or C) because they figured we hadn’t been scared off too badly round one. It was confusing, but really interesting to go in. Again, they only have about 100 inmates currently, so the housing was pretty small. The guys sleep three to a room generally, on mattresses that lay on concrete bed structures. They’re able to have tapestries covering the bars to their cells, personal TVs, and all sorts of things (including hot plates!) that would definitely be considered contraband in most US prisons. We were shown all sorts of really interesting artisan work, like hand-stitched leather-covered terere (the tea, which is served with a thermos, cup, and metal filtered straw) equipment, neat little miniature boats complete with all the necessary ropes, jewelry boxes, and all sorts of other handicrafts. It was really interesting, to say the least. Another PCV (the one I went with originally to the prison) is hoping to help artisans at the prison sell their goods to other PCVs. She and my follow-up are both very interested in doing classes at the prison, though neither of them have worked in the field before. Is it weird that I’m slightly jealous? Maybe.