The Prison and Jail System in Colombia: The Concept of High Security in Specialized Justice

Abstract

Colombia inherited a culture of political conflict from the civil wars of the nineteenth century. After a hiatus, it reappeared in the forties in the confrontation of the traditional parties (liberal and conservative), and beginning in the fifties, there emerged guerrilla groups, paramilitary forces, drug-trafficking rings, common and organized crime, to name a few. This gave way to a new and complex conflict. Since 1978, the the State of Internal Unrest has predominated. This has been the measure for managing internal security without recognizing the armed conflict. The 1991 constitutional reform introduced a new system of justice, which has generated an average 1,500 inmates on a monthly basis. At this rate, the prisons are currently beyond capacity. They are managed under the system of minimum, medium and maximum security. Presently, President Santos declared the existence of the conflict, and he has called for a transitional justice for the peace process. As a result, the Penitentiary and Prison Code is undergoing reforms, and a state of emergency was declared in the prisons as the level of overcrowding has reached 52%, and there are serious violations to the inmate population’s human rights.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5377/rpsp.v3i1.1330