A state of emergency was declared for Ecuadors correctional services in 2010. Overcrowding was the main issue for those behind bars, but the system was also failing to screen for many of the drugs, weapons, cell phones and liquor that were making their way into the jails. 

The new Guayas Regional Centre for the Privation of Liberty was built in Guayaquil to respond to this problem. It’s the first maximum security prison in the country, and cost $66.5 million. One thousand labourers working 24 hours a day in shifts built it over the course of 15 months.

The jail has four pavilions, including one for women, and was built to hold 3,410 people.
Visitors will go through a metal detector and sit on a sensor meant to detect items concealed under clothing. Visitors and inmates will be surveilled by 800s cameras.

Prisoners who display good behaviour could be moved from the maximum security pavillion down to a lesser security pavillion. Similarly, prisoners who are problematic in minimum security will be moved up to the next level.

The wake-up call for prisoners with be at 6 a.m. They will have shower time and breakfast, and then planned activities throughout the day. All prisoners will be expected to choose a course of study. There will be carpentry, metalwork, craft and sewing workshops, as well as classrooms.

The maximum security pavillion has 324 single occupant cells. It has sports fields, family visit rooms, conjugal visit rooms, and visitor screening areas. The medium and minimum security pavilions have 354 two person cells. Besides the services mentioned in the maximum security prison, these two also share a law library.

Visitor policies will also change: current prisoners at the Litoral Penitentiary next door can receive group visits. But at the new jail, they will only be able to see one person at a time, for maximum two hours.

Original story