Roundup Continues In Massive Prison Breakout Hundreds Of Honduran Inmates Riot, Set Fires, Some Commandeering Taxis

Troops and police searched house to house Tuesday for hundreds of prisoners who escaped in fiery riots at two prisons, stealing taxis and hiding in homes to get away.

Police said about 300 of the roughly 700 prisoners who fled Monday had been recaptured by Tuesday morning.

About 500 inmates bolted after setting fire to the state prison in Santa Barbara, 125 miles west of the capital, while about 200 prisoners fled after setting fire to the facility in Trujillo, 150 miles northeast on the Atlantic coast. The breakouts left the prisons empty of inmates.

The fires damaged a hospital near the prison in Trujillo and destroyed four houses in Santa Barbara, where most shops were closed Tuesday.

Some fleeing inmates commandeered taxis to make their getaway while others fled on foot along highways leading out of the two cities. Some forced their way into houses to hide, according to police.

Troops were dispatched to the two cities to help police man roadblocks and search for the escapees.

Trujillo prison director Jose Romero said one inmate bled to death after guards shot him during his escape.

“The riot began when guards discovered 60 dangerous inmates … who escaped through a hole they have excavated in the old adobe walls,” Romero said.

The impoverished country’s 24 prisons hold 10,000 inmates, but nearly 90 percent are either on trial or awaiting trial due to the country’s slow judicial process.

Deputy Interior Minister Rene Suazo Lagos said Tuesday that the prisons are “universities of crime” in which prisoners “are granted doctorates and master’s degrees in delinquency.”

Food and medical care are poor in the prisons, facilities are old and overcrowded and supervision is often weak. Many prisons are located in buildings constructed as housing rather than as prisons.