Where Prisoners Can Do Anything, Except Leave

[Bacchus39]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/04/world/americas/04venez.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=global-home&adxnnlx=1307196043-OjfbTyCs 6NtxJ6IXH3PJg

PORLAMAR, Venezuela —

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Bikini-clad female visitors frolic under the Caribbean sun in an outdoor pool. Marijuana smoke flavors the air. Reggaetón booms from a club filled with grinding couples. Paintings of the Playboy logo adorn the pool hall. Inmates and their guests jostle to place bets at the prison’s raucous cockfighting arena.

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It is not uncommon for armed inmates to exercise a certain degree of autonomy in Venezuela’s penitentiaries. Prisoners with BlackBerries and laptops have arranged drug deals, abductions and murders from their cells, the police say, a legacy of decades of overcrowding, corruption and insufficient guards.

ipments into the Caribbean and the United States, and the traffickers arrested here often end up in this prison, effectively overseeing life behind its walls with a surreal mix of hedonism and force. Some inmates walk the prison grounds grasping assault rifles.

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Other visitors, aware that guards search upon entering but not exiting, go inside to buy drugs. Prisoners and visitors alike make use of an alley between cells to smoke marijuana and crack cocaine.

But human rights groups say corruption and institutional disarray have stymied efforts to improve conditions in many prisons. The nation’s Institute “The state has lost control of the prisons in Venezuela,” said Carlos Nieto, director of Window to Freedom, which documents rights violations in Venezuelan prisons.

[Bacchus39]

1. see video of prison life

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/06/03/world/americas/100000000849275/venezuelas-prison-paradise.html

[bemildred]

2. Simon Romero. nt

[Bacchus39]

3. El Conejo n/t

s

[bemildred]

4. Just trying to save people a little time nt

[Bacchus39]

6. just trying to show people how fun prison life can be n/t

s

[bemildred]

8. It's a lifestyle choice. nt

[Bacchus39]

9. maybe Chavez should recruit the Rabbit as head of the country's prison system

it couldn't possible be any worse, and he certainly wouldn't be the only criminal running things in Venezuela.

[bemildred]

10. I like it, let's see what he could do. He clearly has a grip on the problems. nt

[bemildred]

5. Conejo Valley

The Conejo Valley is a region spanning both southeastern Ventura County and northwestern Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States. It was discovered in 1542 by Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, and eventually became part of the Rancho El Conejo land grant by the Spanish government (in Spanish conejo means "rabbit", and refers to the rabbits common to the region,<1> specifically the Desert Cottontail and Brush Rabbit species<2>). It is located in the northwestern part of the Greater Los Angeles Area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conejo_Valley

I thought that would be a Chumash word like "Tujunga", because of the 'j'. but no, it means "Rabbit Valley" and "Rabbit Ranch".

[Bacchus39]

7. yep, that's what it means n/t

s