A Family Affair: Bolivian Prisons, Institutional Neglect, and the War on Drugs.

• In Event: Prisons in the Americas in 2016: Major Public Policy Challenges

Abstract

Bolivian prisons are overflowing, not only with people, but with human misery. Despite fairly recent reforms intended to reduce the number of pre-trial detainees, Bolivian prisons are once again home to a vast majority of individuals without convictions. The largest proportion of these are individuals charged with drug offenses under the draconian 1988 Law 1008. I intend to describe the realities of the severely broken Bolivian penal system, as well as the nexus between the U.S. anti-drug effort and the dire conditions found in Bolivian penal institutions. I will link the discussion to the fact that although current President Evo Morales rose to power in part due to his opposition to Law 1008, throughout his tenure it has remained in place and remains the single largest source for the influx of prisoners into a system already too crowded by any standard.

Author

• Marten W Brienen, Oklahoma State University