HOLY CRAP! Did you read this on a prison run by inmates

[Bassfever]

FRAIJANES, Guatemala (Reuters) -- Security forces took over a Guatemalan prison controlled for more than 10 years by inmates who produced drugs, lived in spacious homes with luxury goods and even rented space for stores and restaurants.
Seven prisoners died when 3,000 police and soldiers firing automatic weapons stormed the Pavon prison just after dawn Monday. Inmates, some carrying grenades, fired back.
"There was initial resistance by the inmates which was controlled in less than an hour," Interior Minister Carlos Vielmann told reporters.
Guards, often corrupt, only patrolled the prison's perimeter and ran the administration section while inmates organized crime empires on the outside from cell blocks and houses they built on the sprawling prison's large grounds.
A police pick-up truck drove out of Pavon after the raid carrying at least two bodies. A dead man's legs dangled out of the back of the vehicle.
Luis Alfonso Zepeda, a convicted murderer who headed an "order committee" elected by prisoners that controlled the prison for more than a decade, was killed in a shootout with security forces.
Zepeda earned around $25,000 a month from extortion and drug trafficking run from inside the prison, police said. His son Samuel lived illegally inside the prison to help run the crime empire, even though he was never sent there by a court.
Prisoners had set up laboratories to produce cocaine, crack and liquor inside Pavon, on the edge of the town of Fraijanes.
Homes on ground
Pavon was one of the worst prisons in Guatemala's penitentiary system, where common criminals, rival "mara" street gangsters and drug traffickers often battle for control.
"It's a center where organized crime, drug trafficking, kidnapping, extortion and all kinds of illicit activities were being controlled from," Vielmann said.
Inmates also built their own homes in the prison grounds. One belonging to a Colombian drug trafficker had a Jacuzzi, national prison director Alejandro Giammattei said.
The two-story wooden house boasted a king-sized bed and was protected by pedigree guard dogs, a witness said.
Giammattei asked prosecutors to investigate all of the 80 or so prison guards at Pavon for allowing drugs, weapons and hundreds of cell phones inside.
Pavon, southeast of the capital, was originally built for 800 inmates as a farm prison, where prisoners could grow their own food. But its population grew over time and inmates began to construct their own homes on the grounds.
The "order committee" sold new prisoners title deeds to homes in the grounds and rented space where inmates set up restaurants selling home cooking like stews and tortillas.
Stores controlled by the prisoners sold soft drinks and chips brought in from the outside.
After taking control, security forces began emptying Pavon of its 1,600 inhabitants and transferring them to another prison.
The operation came a day after Guatemala's main newspaper Prensa Libre published a long article about the prisoners' often relaxed lifestyle. Journalists who got into the prison said they bought marijuana, cocaine and crack there.

[stjohnroe]

I recently read a book called "Marching Powder" by Rusty Young which told the story of an inmate in a similar prison setup in Bolivia.

[dpenix76]

I cant remember the exact country,but the Discovery Channel had a show once where they went inside one of these prisons.The freakin' yard reminded me of a state fair with food booths selling all kinds of fresh cooked food.Truly unbelievable

[cigarsarge]

In reality imates run prisions in America. They have their own set of rules they live by. They have a definate pecking order. Everything they have on the street, drugs, guns, boose, cell phones, and women, are available inside.

The guards merely keep a lid on their activities...If they can. Many guards are intimidated to look the other way or to help supply the inmates needs. Others join in willingly to make a profit.

We have several privitely run prisions in Tennessee. They hire ex-inmates to work inside after they have been out a couple of years...Because they know how things work inside. What's wrong with that picture?

Serious reform needs to be made to insure the prisions are secure. They are far from it now.

[cigar no baka]

Damn, I'd hardly call that a prison.

Sounds like in some of the prisons in the US, the only penalty you're paying is lack of movement. Otherwise you can get whatever you can afford to purchase.

[WhiteWidow]

In reality imates run prisions in America. They have their own set of rules they live by. They have a definate pecking order. Everything they have on the street, drugs, guns, boose, cell phones, and women, are available inside.

Except on the outside we don't use photos of Macauly Culkin as money.

[cls515]

In reality imates run prisions in America.

Not really. They could, but they are too divided with gangs and race.

[cigarsarge]

Not really. They could, but they are too divided with gangs and race.

Beg to differ with you on this. Prision gangs will call a truce if something major needs to be acomplished...Dealing with a snitch or a guard that has angered them. That does not mean they are friends...That does not mean they won't do each other in after it's acomplished.

Like I said they run the show...The guards merely try to keep a lid on it.

[WhiteWidow]

sarge correct me if I'm wrong but didn't you say you don't like that warden out in Arizona? Wouldn't his methods put a stop to that crap? I don't know much about him other than his wikipedia article.

[cigarsarge]

sarge correct me if I'm wrong but didn't you say you don't like that warden out in Arizona? Wouldn't his methods put a stop to that crap? I don't know much about him other than his wikipedia article.

The guy you are talking about is Sheriff Joe Arpario. He is the Sheriff of Maricopa County Arizona.

He is over the county jail...Not the same as a prision. A jail merely holds people convicted of misdermeanors and people waiting to go to trial. I've seen parts of his jail and talked to several people that have been locked up there. IMHO his jail, while saving the taxpayer money, is borderline inhumane.

Jails and prisions have totally different sets of rules. Long term prision inmates have many more rights than people housed in county jails. If Sheriff Arpario was running a prision in the manner he runs his jail he would soon be out of a job and the state would be overrun with lawsuits.

[cls515]

Prision gangs will call a truce if something major needs to be acomplished...Dealing with a snitch or a guard that has angered them.

Gangs don't need to unite to deal with a snitch or guard.

The guards merely try to keep a lid on it

I use to be a guard. There is really not much you can do except give and get respect and be ready when the gangs jump off on each other.

[cigarsarge]

Gangs don't need to unite to deal with a snitch or guard.

I use to be a guard. There is really not much you can do except give and get respect and be ready when the gangs jump off on each other.

I know of several instances where gangs did cooperate to solve a problem. Also I overheard a couple of inmates talking about a "common gun" they had stashed inside a prison. They said they would nover use it on each other...It was for the guards.

Hats off to you for once doing a job not many would have the guts to do. I could not imagine having to work in those conditions. In my new position I get to meet many inmates. It's just in a little more controled enviorment than "the yard".

In reality solving prision problems all boils down to money Do you want to spend it to build a system that works and is safe...Most taxpayers don't.