¢2 Million Daily To Maintain
125 Men In Jail For Not Paying Alimony and Child Support
Costa Rica spends about ¢2 million colones daily to house and feed
125 prisoners who are behind bars for not paying the "pensión
alimentaria" (alimony and child support), who each owe, on average,
¢400.000 colones.
The 125 men are housed in the La Reforma prison in Alajuela, each
costing Costa Rican taxpayers ¢16.000 colones (us$30) daily.
Although the average owed for alimony and child support is ¢400.000,
there are a number of men who owe between 3 and 6 million colones
each.
Prison authorites say that 80% of the men incarcerated for non
payment of the pensión have a serious drug addiction problem,
accounting for a 36% reincidence rate, spending up to six months in
jail, then waiting out the 45 days to find a job, and then back in
jail again.
Over the weekend, 22 men entered the La Reforma for not paying the
pensión.
Reynaldo Villalobos, director of the Adaptación Social says that the
families of these men get nothing while they are in jail.
For his part, the head of the Policía Penitenciaria, says that there
should be some way that these men be able to compensate the state
for the cost of their upkeep.
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