25 Honduran police officers in the United States
Yesterday, Honduras' El Heraldo published an article about 25 Honduran police officers who are currently in the United States for training on prison management. According to the article, the training will help keep "improvisation, flexibility, incompetence and corruption" out of Honduras' new maximum-security prison. The seven-week long training includes topics such as the proper handling of inmates, acceptable police conduct, and measures to be taken with prisoners to avoid danger. Below is a translation of the article, thanks to CIP Intern Cristina Salas. Police officers will be trained to guard maximum-security prison The policemen that traveled to the United States will be entrusted of training other correctional officers. Improvisation, flexibility, incompetence and corruption do not seem to be a part of the new maximum-security prison to be inaugurated in the upcoming days in the Marco Aurelio Soto National Penitentiary. The Department of Security (Secretaría de Seguridad) and the National Authority of Preventive Special Services (Dirección Nacional de Servicios Especiales Preventivos, DNSEP) choose the staff and resources to be used in the jail that will host dangerous criminals. A first contingent of 25 police officers, men and women, travelled to the United States yesterday to attend a special training session on handling inmates, proper police officer-conduct, and measures to be taken with prisoners to avoid danger, among others. … The group will remain in training for seven weeks and will come back to the country to rejoin the police force in the main penitentiary, given that the security module will be inaugurated in the beginning of July, where inmates selected by experts in the field will be hosted. They will serve time Minister [of Security Óscar] Álvarez stated that the police officers trained in prison management would help so that “those imprisoned serve their time as it should be.” “It is the first time in history,” he added, “that we have sent a contingent of this size to be trained on inmate management in the United States.” He continued saying the course will last seven weeks, which will “help us transition our prison system management from the 20th to the 21st century.” He declared that, in order to guarantee efficiency of the new prison, the selection process of police officers is very rigorous, they are subjected to polygraph tests and background checks to assure quality. What we want, he said, is that whoever does the job has a clean criminal record and no connections with organized crime or criminal gangs. … The chief of DNSEP, Danilo Orellana, confirmed that the building could hold up to 220 inmates selected by technical teams approved by Minister Álvarez. In the following days, Álvarez will announce rehabilitation measurements for the general penitentiary population, including those in this unit, who will be people involved to organized crime such as drug-traffickers, kidnappers and car thieves, among others.