Belize’s prison population at a glance
617 inmates in 1992
630 inmates in 1995
1,043 inmates in 1998
903 inmates in 2001
1,150 inmates in 2004
1,234 inmates in 2005
1,364 inmates in 2006
1,346 inmates in 2007
1,365 inmates in 2008
1,420 inmates today
Official capacity of the prison system is 1,500 (ICPS – April 2009)
Most Belizeans, unless they have a loved one behind bars, don’t think much about those men and women locked up at the Hattieville Correctional Facility—a population that stands today at 1,420 — 1290 Belizeans and 130 foreigners from 16 different countries.
Belize has the 9th highest prisoner per capita rate in the world and the highest rate in Central America – that’s according to the latest statistics published under the World Prison Brief, posted on the Internet by the International Centre for Prison Studies (ICPS) of King’s College, London, and published in the World Prison Population List. (See accompanying table.)
To elaborate on what these stats mean, prison authorities explained this morning (on the Love FM Morning Show) that there are almost 500 people behind bars for every 100,000 people living in Belize.
These numbers might not seem striking compared to other countries. The United States, for example, has over 2 million people incarcerated, and that country is reported to have the highest prisoner per capita rate in the world, in excess of 700 per 100,000 people living in the country. St. Kitts/Nevis, in the Caribbean, is reportedly positioned right behind the US.
The Belize prison is managed by Kolbe Foundation. Information supplied to our newspaper from Kolbe’s Records & Processing Unit shows that the prison population grew nearly 20% since 2004, when daily headcounts averaged 1,150 inmates. By 2008, the daily average was 1,365. Today, the headcount is 1,420, with nearly 98% of inmates being males. Sixty are minors at the Wagner’s Youth Facility.
ICPS’s summary on Belize says the official capacity of the prison system is 1,500—meaning that the prison system is almost maxed out.
Guatemalan inmates make up 46% of the current foreign prison population. Next in line are Hondurans and Salvadorans.
There are only two prisoners listed on death row: Glenford Baptist and Earlin White. Twenty-nine are serving life sentences.
Chief Executive Officer of Kolbe, Meliton Auil, explained that the death sentence would convert to a life sentence after 5 to 7 years, because keeping inmates longer than that on death row is regarded as “cruel and inhumane” treatment. In Belize, however, there is no parole system, so “life” means “life” for those cases.
The prison population in Belize is growing at a pace more than double that of the regular population. Another concern is that there are several hundreds of prisoners on remand – some of them for as long as 5 years.
Kolbe reports that there are currently 615 inmates remanded for misdemeanors and 93 awaiting trial for indictable matters, especially murder. Inmates on misdemeanor charges are remanded from 4 to 6 weeks, while those on indictable charges average 4 to 5 years behind bars.
We end on a positive note: Kolbe reports a drop in the recidivism rate from 73% to 23%, attributed to rehabilitation programs inside the facility, which have been ongoing for three years. From 2005 and 2008, 1,151 admissions of a total of 4,632 were admissions of repeat offenders. For 2008, 31 inmates were admitted for at least a second crime, down from 54 in 2006.