San Pedro prison, the biggest in Bolivia’s main city, La Paz, is home to about 1,500 inmates.
Once you pass the thick walls and the security gates, any resemblance to a normal jail disappears: there are children playing, market stalls, restaurants, hairdressers and even a hotel.
…The prison is divided into eight sectors and facilities range from miserable to luxurious.
There are no guards, no uniforms or metal bars on the cell windows. This relative freedom comes at a price: inmates have to pay for their cells, so most of them have to work inside the jail, selling groceries or working in the food stalls. Others work as hairdressers, laundry staff, carpenters, shoe-shine boys or TV and radio repairmen.
…Violence in San Pedro is relatively contained during the day, but things can get bad at night, when inmates steal from each other and fight with knives. The police do not go inside or interfere in any way.
…Prisoners are expected to resolve their own problems through section representatives elected democratically.
A short photo essay from BBC News.
I am intrigued by the politics and “institutions”. It’s hard to imagine an elected assembly calls the shots. How do political institutions sustain themselves? How are property rights protected?
The economics would be fascinating as well. What do they pay for “imports”? Is “keeping inmates off the street” their sole export, and how is the value and price determined? What’s the unit of exchange and does someone operate monetary policy?
Possibly these answers are out there but I have not investigated. Excuse my laziness.
Either way, this sounds like a fascinating political-ethnographic dissertation waiting to be written. You would need cahones and a flexible human subjects committee.
21 Responses
The privatized prison at its most extreme? http://t.co/j3ryw05i
The privatized prison at its most extreme? http://t.co/LgvCvaLH
RT @adelaigue: The privatized prison at its most extreme? | Chris Blattman http://t.co/5JkfRta8
via @cblatts The privatized prison at its most extreme? http://t.co/Um2rurRM and fascinating paper by @davidskarbek http://t.co/teyVwBEK
The privatized prison at its most extreme? | Chris Blattman http://t.co/5JkfRta8
The privatized prison at its most extreme? via @cblatts, http://t.co/QmT4ZhmZ
Check out David Skarbek’s work on the topic: http://www.independent.org/pdf/tir/tir_14_04_06_skarbek.pdf
The economics are simple in many prisons: sex for food, “elections” = power, judicial rule = brutality. See, among many other accounts: http://www.hrw.org/node/89834
RT @cblatts: The privatized prison at its most extreme? http://t.co/a1QdcKBP
“@cblatts: The privatized prison at its most extreme? http://t.co/jiGYapwi”
Oh wait, I think I’ve seen this one before
The privatized prison at its most extreme? http://t.co/vjRVEWKz
RT @cblatts: The privatized prison at its most extreme? http://t.co/a1QdcKBP
There is an immensely fascinating book already written on the prison! Highly recommended (and quick) read:
http://www.amazon.com/Marching-Powder-Friendship-Americas-Strangest/dp/0312330340/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352741433&sr=1-1&keywords=marching+powder
RT @cblatts: The privatized prison at its most extreme? http://t.co/a1QdcKBP
The privatized prison at its most extreme? (via @cblatts) http://t.co/lpZOwY71
RT @cblatts: The privatized prison at its most extreme? http://t.co/a1QdcKBP
The privatized prison at its most extreme? http://t.co/4g6zjO1n
RT @cblatts: The privatized prison at its most extreme? http://t.co/a1QdcKBP
RT @cblatts: The privatized prison at its most extreme? http://t.co/a1QdcKBP