ABSTRACT

Nicaragua is a nation in transition, and its prison system reflects the remarkable and sweeping changes in life and government since the end of the Somoza dictatorship in 1979. These changes, such as the transfer of land to co-operatives and poorer peasants, the literacy campaign and the present drive to clean up the country’s water sources, all demonstrate a thrust of government policy very different from the regime which ended in 1979. In many ways the Nicaraguan prison system is an exemplar of this shift in political philosophy and policy.