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The Constitutional Court of Peru (TC) approved on Wednesday a five-year extension for reducing overcrowding of the nation’s prisons. The resolution, formed in 2020 and set to expire on Tuesday, was extended due to complaints from Congress.
Ministry of Justice and Human Rights cited a lack of funding, attributing it to the economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic and Cyclone Yaku as the main reasons for its inability to build more penitentiaries.
The 2020 TC ruling warned that if overcrowding persisted, prisons operating over capacity would have to close and transfer their inmates to facilities with available space. In October 2024, the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) transferred over $830 million to the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE) for the construction of new prisons. Prime Minister Eduardo Arana declared the government had “taken the bull by horns” and would soon have “100 percent control of calls inside and outside penitentiaries.” Still, reports from early April—weeks before the deadline—confirmed 68 prisons, housing 94,911 inmates, exceeded capacity by 54 percent, with the most serious case being the prison of Quillabamba, with an overpopulation of 505 percent.
Former Minister of Justice and Human Rights Víctor García stated that President Dina Boluarte’s administration lacked seriousness to this “wake-up call” and that the TC ruling ultimately shifts responsibility to the next government. Former INPE Chief Rosa Mávila argued “this is a historic dilemma that cannot be solved by simply requesting more time to build infrastructure.” Mávila noted that some setbacks, such as the government’s reversal on the Tacna prison expansion due to local opposition, and the stalled reconstruction of the Ica mega-prison which was halted for five years due to contractual disputes, are background problems that require a variety of measures to reach a solution.
One of the government’s recently criticized measures to reduce overcrowding is the release of inmates convicted of failure to pay child support or petty theft if they pay the owed alimony or civil compensation, a move that would benefit approximately 6,200 inmates. However, while experts consider the measure positive, they argue it is insufficient as Peru holds over 100,000 people in detention, most of whom have not yet been sentenced. Civilian interviews revealed a general perception that the decision was a “quick fix” aimed at eliminating minor offenses rather than addressing the root issue of prison capacity.
As 56 percent of Peruvians consider President Boluarte responsible for the country’s public insecurity, and her disapproval rating has reached 93 percent, citizens hope the situation will not deteriorate further and that appropriate measures will be taken through the remainder of her term, which concludes on July 28, 2026.
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Ministry of Justice and Human Rights cited a lack of funding, attributing it to the economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic and Cyclone Yaku as the main reasons for its inability to build more penitentiaries.
The 2020 TC ruling warned that if overcrowding persisted, prisons operating over capacity would have to close and transfer their inmates to facilities with available space. In October 2024, the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) transferred over $830 million to the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE) for the construction of new prisons. Prime Minister Eduardo Arana declared the government had “taken the bull by horns” and would soon have “100 percent control of calls inside and outside penitentiaries.” Still, reports from early April—weeks before the deadline—confirmed 68 prisons, housing 94,911 inmates, exceeded capacity by 54 percent, with the most serious case being the prison of Quillabamba, with an overpopulation of 505 percent.
Former Minister of Justice and Human Rights Víctor García stated that President Dina Boluarte’s administration lacked seriousness to this “wake-up call” and that the TC ruling ultimately shifts responsibility to the next government. Former INPE Chief Rosa Mávila argued “this is a historic dilemma that cannot be solved by simply requesting more time to build infrastructure.” Mávila noted that some setbacks, such as the government’s reversal on the Tacna prison expansion due to local opposition, and the stalled reconstruction of the Ica mega-prison which was halted for five years due to contractual disputes, are background problems that require a variety of measures to reach a solution.
One of the government’s recently criticized measures to reduce overcrowding is the release of inmates convicted of failure to pay child support or petty theft if they pay the owed alimony or civil compensation, a move that would benefit approximately 6,200 inmates. However, while experts consider the measure positive, they argue it is insufficient as Peru holds over 100,000 people in detention, most of whom have not yet been sentenced. Civilian interviews revealed a general perception that the decision was a “quick fix” aimed at eliminating minor offenses rather than addressing the root issue of prison capacity.
As 56 percent of Peruvians consider President Boluarte responsible for the country’s public insecurity, and her disapproval rating has reached 93 percent, citizens hope the situation will not deteriorate further and that appropriate measures will be taken through the remainder of her term, which concludes on July 28, 2026.
The post Constitutional Court of Peru extends deadline to address prison overcrowding by five years appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.