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The crisis of detention and the politics of denial in Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 December 2017

Paul Hathazy  and
Markus-Michael Müller
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Abstract

This article assesses the causes of the crisis of detention in Latin America. It is argued that this crisis, which manifests itself in overpopulation of the region's prison systems, deficient infrastructure, prison informality and violence propelled ultimately by political processes, is mostly related to, on the one hand, disastrous human rights conditions inside Latin American prisons, and on other, the political denial of these conditions. This denial produces a state of institutional abandonment that is preserved by the interests of politicians and bureaucrats, who are engaged in denying prison violence and human rights abuses while simultaneously calling for more punishment and imprisonment.

Keywords

prison conditionsLatin Americaviolencedenialhuman rightsinternationalization strategies
Type
Conditions in detention
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 98 , Issue 903: Detention: Addressing the human cost , December 2016 , pp. 889 - 916
Copyright
Copyright © icrc 2017 

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88 Three weeks after the first massive protest in prisons in Chile, the justice and public works ministers announced a programme to build prisons for 16,000 inmates, putting them in the hands of private companies: El Mercurio, 14 January 2001.

89 The government privatized prisons “the French way”, retaining security and supervision of prisons and contracting out building and operations, as well as provision of food, laundry, medical and rehabilitation “services”: El Mercurio, 14 January 2001. For an analysis of the privatization process, see P. Hathazy, “Democratizing Leviathan”, above note 43, pp. 226–229.

90 Their 2002 report showed overcrowding, lack of hygiene, insufficient food, prisons controlled by inmates with high levels of violence, deaths, and a highly tense order produced by the collaboration between abusive and exploitative gangs and despotic guards. The report also denounced systematic torture and physical abuses. See Castro, Alvaro and Hernandez, Martin Besio, “Chile: Las cárceles de la miseria”, Pena y Estado: Revista Latinoamericana de Political Criminal, Vol. 6, No. 6, 2005 Google Scholar.

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98 In 1994 the IACHR declared that steps must be made “to remedy inhuman conditions in prisons”, and it began dealing with them in its annual report of 1995. It issued a recommendation in 1998, has produced country studies since 1998, and created a special rapporteurship on the rights of persons deprived of liberty in its 119th session, in March 2004. See: www.oas.org/en/iachr/pdl/default.asp.

99 The Council was formed entirely of “specialists” from think-tanks and NGOs: the Fundación Paz Ciudadana, Center for the Study of Security, led by Hugo Frühling; the FLACSO Security and Citizenship Program, directed by Lucía Dammnert; and Cristian Riego from the Justice Studies Center of the Americas. The think-tanks and university expert were joined by the Supreme Court prosecutor, and representatives of the Ministries of Justice and the Interior. The minister of justice asked them to work on rehabilitation. See Consejo para la Reforma Penitenciaria, Recomendaciones para una nueva política penitenciaria, Ministerio de Justicia de Chile, Santiago de Chile, 2010 Google Scholar.

100 Ibid .

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103 Ibid ., pp. 113–118, section “Reformas y avances desde 2010 a la fecha”.

104 Law 20.588, “Indulto general”, 22 May 2012, available at: www.leychile.cl/Navegar?idNorma=1040511.

105 Law 20.587, “Modifica el régimen de libertad condicional y establece en caso de multa la pena alternativa de trabajos comunitarios”, 8 July 2012, available at: www.leychile.cl/Navegar?idNorma=1040829.

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116 M.-M. Müller, above note 36, pp. 101–102.

117 Personal interview with NGO member, Mexico City, June 2006.

118 On the difficulties of access to government by civil society actors, see Lean, Sharon F., “Enhancing Accountability in Mexico: Civil Society in a New Relationship with the State?”, LASA Forum, Vol. 45, No. 1, 2014 Google Scholar, available at: https://lasa.international.pitt.edu/forum/files/vol45-issue1/Debates3.pdf.

119 Personal interview, NGO member, Mexico City, July 2007, quoted in Müller, Markus-Michael, “The Struggle over Human Rights in Mexico”, in Hoffmann-Holland, Klaus (ed.), Ethics and Human Rights in a Globalized World, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, 2009 Google Scholar.

120 M.-M. Müller, above note 83.

121 Nigel Rodley, “Torture and Conditions of Detention in Latin America”, in J. E. Mendez, G. O'Donnell and P. S. Pinheiro, above note 24, pp. 39–40.

122 IACHR, Report on the Human Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty in the Americas, Washington, DC, 2011, pp. 219–220 Google Scholar, available at: www.oas.org/en/iachr/pdl/docs/pdf/PPL2011eng.pdf.

123 Y. Dezalay and B. G. Garth, above note 83, p. 249.

124 Ibid .