Colombia's Prison Crisis illustrates why penal reform is so difficult
Punitive populism and a feedback loop of "tough on crime" campaigns are leading to insecurity at prisons in Latam
This week’s feature is by Colombian journalist Sebastian Barriga.
At 9 a.m. on February 10, Jesús Daniel Cárdenas Barrera, a Colombian prison guard, left the San Sebastián de Ternera Prison in Cartagena to buy something to eat at a small food cart in front of the prison.
He glanced at the long line of people waiting to visit their relatives as he waited for his meal. It seemed like a typical morning. In a matter of moments, armed men shattered the calm morning, shooting Daniel 3 times before fleeing.
He died on the spot.
Ten days earlier, in Cúcuta, Carlos Andrés Sandoval Ortiz, a prison employee who designed security measures in penitentiary systems, was murdered while chatting with friends in the city center.
The killings marked the targeted assassinations of more than 7 prison employees in less than a month. In protest over what they describe as poor security conditions for prison employees, Colombia’s penitentiary unions declared a strike.
In response to work-shortages, Minister of Justice Néstor Osuna, declared a temporary state of emergency in the nation's prisons— measures that included mass-searches, a supposed crackdown on gangs and suspension of some of the constitutional rights of citizens. It is the fourth time in a decade that Colombia has declared this type of emergency.
The Colombian prison system is full of problems. It’s also full of prisoners— the prison system currently holds 25% more prisoners than facilities were designed for. As a result prisoners, even when states of emergencies are not in place, are kept in horrific conditions.
But Fernando Tamayo, an expert on penitentiary issues and professor at the University of the Andes, warns that official figures on overcrowding are misleadingly low.
For the last five years police stations "have been fulfilling functions of the penitentiary system,” he told PWS. “There are many people who should be in prison, in the legal sense, but they are detained [in police stations] and have not been transferred. This is problematic because these stations are designed to hold a person for no more than 36 hours.”
In Bogotá alone there are places that are over 200% overcrowded, creating a humanitarian crisis in which detainees have no place to relieve themselves, no food in good condition, and nowhere to sleep. Making matters worse, Colombian prison systems are woefully underfunded and under-staffed.
"The ratio of guards to inmates varies but has always been unbalanced, which makes it very difficult to control and manage within prisons,” said Nataly Macana, a candidate for a doctorate in law at the Universidad de Los Andes. The shortage has led to the appointment of some prisoners to act as informal “yard chiefs”, who help govern the overcrowded facilities.
These yard chiefs fulfill the functions that the state does not. Even so, they are part of the criminal networks that operate in the prisons and even oversee some aspects of criminal economies inside prisons, such as extortion.
How to change this dynamic is an ongoing debate. In the short term, building more prisons and/or expanding existing ones could help considerably. But both experts who spoke to PWS said that medium and long-term, new prisons are historically followed by stricter sentencing, and more prison sentences, which means they are quickly over-filled— and become simply new parts of the same dynamic.
Punitive jail systems, based not on notions of rehabilitation but rather punishment and confinement simply do not work. "The answer to all [criminal] behaviors cannot be jail,” said Macana. “We have to look for preventive policy mechanisms, educational and cultural measures that help reduce the incidence rate. It is also necessary to close the inequality gap because in the end the penal system is a selective system,” which punishes the poor while elites from the upper classes enjoy a near impunity.
So you have overcrowded prisons full of poor people" she added. And rather than prison reform, reactive politicians often call for stricter sentencing guidelines rather than address systemic causes of criminality.
"Every time a problem or a news is given a lot of importance, a bill is immediately passed that seeks either to increase penalties or create a new criminal type as a mechanism to symbolize a state response, regardless of whether or not it is effective,” she said.
Tamayo largely agreed, adding "We should send fewer people to prison.” He suggested decriminalization of some minor crimes, such as drug use, as well as the expansion of reintegration programs for convicted persons.
Leftist President Gustavo Petro has pushed for a more humane approach to prisons and advocated for “restorative justice” — an approach that focuses on the victim and seeks a reparation that goes beyond the punitive, generating mechanisms more related to mediation and dialogue.
But it also seeks a collective conflict resolution, since the community itself is also affected by the crime. Some of the alternative penalties proposed are economic reparations or work outside prisons.
An attempt to implement these ideas was passed by Congress last year. It seeks to allow some five thousand women heads of household, who have been convicted of petty theft and drug-related crimes, to serve their sentences by performing a public utility service.
But so far, it has been very rarely utilized.
But restorative justice faces an extreme social stigma. In Colombia, punitive populism is very strong in right-wing sectors that advocate for harsher sentences, militarization of prison systems, and even allowing the privatization of the prison system or creating a public-private model.
And no politician wants to be seen as soft on crime when election season rolls around.
Both experts told PWS that although privatization of prisons is not yet a problem in Colombia, it tends to aggravate the situation and generate human rights violations in the countries where it has been implemented, such as the United States.
But problems within the prison system are only one small part of a larger picture. Deficiencies in the legal, educational, political and social systems are larger factors in criminality than a punitive justice system.
Both Nataly and Fernando believe that the fundamental solution to Colombia’s current crisis is to create an integrated penal system that involves all levels of society and that guarantees not only rehabilitation and reinsertion into society, but also creates mechanisms that dignify the lives of all people.
The Big Stories in Latam
Chaos in Haiti worsened considerably after gangs in the capital city declared their intentions to topple the government, which was appointed after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse
In 2021. From jailbreaks of thousands of prisoners, to coordinated attacks on airports as well as police stations, authorities have effectively lost control of Port-Au-Prince.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry is under pressure to step down, not just from criminal groups, but also civil society. The demand has been echoed by regional leaders as well as the U.S, who have asked for a “transitional government” until elections can be held.
Henry is currently trapped out of the country in Puerto Rico as gangs have the capital on lockdown. He was in Kenya attempting to organize a Kenyan led U.N-led peacekeeping force to be deployed in Haiti to wrest control of the country from armed groups.
Panama’s government is kicking Doctors Without Borders (MSF) out of the country. The group provided medical services to migrants arriving on the Panamanian side of the Darien Gap— the most used migration route in the western hemisphere.
The decision comes days after MSF announced increases of sexual assaults against migrants making the dangerous journey through the dense jungle crossing, as well as by Panamanian migration officials after they arrived.
Ship’s Business
Joshua has been filling in on the breaking news desk for the London Times all week, cranking out stories at light-speed. It’s just a temporary gig— no pirate can be contained forever! But he is learning a lot working in a fast-paced newsroom. And the deadlines just don’t stop coming!
As we write this, Daniela is out on the streets covering feminist marches in Bogota organized as part of International Women’s Day. We’re hoping she doesn’t encounter Colombia’s notorious riot police, ESMAD. We’re doing some stories soon on this, in partnership with the absolutely amazing Mexican magazine Ojalá.
As we were typing those words, ESMAD was launching tear gas at protesters, which we were just informed of. Sigh….
Spanish Word of the Week
Tombo- “copper”
Speaking of police, if you ever find yourself in Colombia or Peru, you might hear them referred to as “tombos”.
While the exact Etymology for this slang term is unknown, most scholars believe the term "tombo" was born as part of the syllabic inversion of the word for “button”, which is allusive to the shiny, metallic buttons that adorned police uniforms in previous years.
Similar to the use of “copper” in English.
¡no me atraparán vivo, tombos! - “you’ll never take me alive, coppers!”
In Colombian Spanish however, we’d suggest the meaning is a bit more derogatory than its English counterpart. It’s rare to attend a protest in which one does not hear the phrase “tombos assesinos!” (murderer cops).
Interestingly, though apparently unrelated to the origin, the word sounds a lot like the Spanish word for “tomb” (tumba)— a perhaps descriptive etymological coincidence.
At any rate, watch out for los tombos in Colombia. According to protesters in Bogota last night, son muy HdP. But that’s a Spanish word for another day (ha).
Hasta pronto, piratas!
Thanks, to you all. Another powerful and worrying piece from Central and South America this week.