CARACAS: More than 4,500 inmates in three prisons in Venezuela have gone on hunger strike to protest overcrowding and mistreatment, protestors told the local media on Friday.

The mass hunger strike, which began Thursday, includes 3,400 detainees at Tocoron prison, in northern Aragua state, 1,137 inmates at Vista Hermosa in south-east Bolivar state, and 80 at Minima in northern Carabobo state.

The 3,400 prisoners at Tocoron said in a statement that the prison was designed to accommodate just 600 inmates and said the slow pace of the justice system was to blame for the overpopulation.

The inmates at all three prisons also called for better health services and improvements to the facilities where relative visits take place.

A lawyer for an inmate at La Minima told El Universal that wardens at the facility "hit" detainees, "destroyed their personal effects" and "suspended their visits" after the escape of prisoner last week.

In the first quarter of the year, 221 detainees died in Venezuelan prison, a rise of 25 percent from the first six months of 2009, according to a report from the Venezuelan Prison Watch, a non-government organization.

BDST: 1014 HRS, September 4, 2010