St. Paul Pioneer Press
SANTIAGO, Chile — Chilean President Sebastian Pinera announced a multimillion-dollar plan Thursday to improve conditions for the country’s prisoners after 81 inmates were killed by fire in severely crowded cells.
The $460 million program includes purchasing prefabricated concrete modular prisons for minimum-security inmates to help reduce overcrowding.
Currently, 53,000 inmates are housed in a prison system built for 32,000. Pinera did not elaborate on other parts of the plan.
His announcement came as officials continued the slow process of identifying the bodies of inmates killed in the blaze that broke out early Wednesday in the San Miguel prison, a facility for 700 that housed 1,900 inmates.
The cause of the fire has not been determined, but preliminary investigations indicate it was started by brawling inmates.
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