OPINION:
The prison conditions inside the National Prison in Comayagua, Honduras, where a recent deadly fire took place and killed hundreds in one of the worst prison fires in a century, were barbaric (“As many as 356 killed in Honduras prison fire,” Web, Wednesday).
A person being burned at the stake would have a better chance of surviving than those prisoners had. Not only was the prison severely overcrowded, it had an insufficient and poorly trained staff, deplorable conditions for prisoners and a shameful emergency evacuation procedure, where keys couldn’t even be found to unlock prison cells. This caused many prisoners to be burned to death and suffocate inside their cells.
The unfortunate part in all of this is that you only hear about deplorable prison conditions after there is a tragedy like this.
KENNETH L. ZIMMERMAN
Huntington Beach, Calif.
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