Prison Fire Victims Weren’t Charged

The story of the Honduran prison fire keeps getting worse. Not only did the fire kill 358 inmates locked in an overcrowded prison, but odds are most of them had never been charged with crimes. More than half the 856 inmates of the Comayagua prison—which was built to hold 500 prisoners—were either awaiting trial or being held as suspected gang members, according to a report by the Honduran government. Under Honduras’ strict anti-gang laws, a person need only have a tattoo to be imprisoned. The U.N. condemns the practice as a violation of international law. On Tuesday night, a fire started by an inmate tore through the prison, burning and suffocating inmates in their cells.