They ask to declare a prison and prison emergency in Cali due to overcrowding

The Ministry of Security and Justice of Cali asked to declare a state of prison and prison emergency in view of the levels of overcrowding in police stations and in the Immediate Reaction Units (URIs).

The request was made by the Secretary of Security and Justice, Carlos Soler Parra, who indicated the levels of overpopulation in police stations are between 133% and 2,040%, according to a recent alert issued by the Attorney General's Office and the Office of the Ombudsman. “Currently, 2,026 men and 145 women are in a situation of overcrowding in temporary detention centers, a situation that does not guarantee the minimum of fundamental rights for these people,” said the secretary.

Soler made the request in a meeting with representatives of the Ministries of the Interior, Justice, Defence, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (INPEC), the Prison and Prison Services Unit (Uspec), Asocapitales, the Metropolitan Police and human rights guarantors. “We sat down to talk why, due to legal issues, the 36 hours to be (detained) in police stations became six months and a year,” the official commented.

According to the Secretariat, the state of emergency is intended to provide a short-term solution to the situation affecting persons deprived of their liberty. “We have looked for a route to find a solution,” Soler said. We find it in Law 1709 of 2008 (...) which says that the director of Inpec may declare, with a prior request, a penitentiary and prison emergency due to severe overcrowding”.

Soler also proposed a few visits to prisons to look for ways to mitigate the situation. The official explained that the work would be done in a coordinated manner between the secretariats of Health, Security and Justice and Peace, with the accompaniment of the Office of the Attorney General, the Ombudsman's Office and the Personería.

Inpec Reform

After last Friday, March 18, alias' Matamba ', one of the former leaders of the Gulf Clan, escaped from Bogotá's La Picota prison, President Iván Duque announced that he would conduct a reform of the Colombian penitentiary and prison system in the administrative part. Following the announcement, the Union of Prison Workers (UTP) said it supported the proposal of the national president, provided that it respected the rights of workers.

In dialogue with RCN Radio, UTP President Óscar Robayo indicated that, although they support President Duque's proposed reform of the prison system, they are nevertheless concerned that, in the midst of this transformation, Colombian prison workers will be affected by initiatives such as privatizing centers of imprisonment in the country.

“If they think that liquidating us or passing us to the police or becoming a public force, it would be the best thing, they are wrong,” Robayo said. The president of the UTP explained that this decision “would be to seek a cloak of impunity, silencing workers” and said that the union views with concern the Ministry of Justice's policy of privatizing prisons, “to cover up prison overcrowding, which did not end but moved to detention centers, URI and police stations”.

According to the union leader, if that scenario becomes a reality, it would be about 12,000 officials of the country's prison surveillance body and another 4,000 administrative workers who would be affected by this reform.

KEEP READING: