2023-05-17 03:15:00
In Neuquén prisons there are 534 people; Of these, 310 are housed in detention units and 70 more in police stations located in the capital city. The rest is distributed by prisons in the interior of the province. Overpopulation is a problem that worsened in the last semester: Today it is quantified at 17%, according to official figures, and everything indicates that it will continue to grow. Since 2014, when the current Criminal Procedure Code entered into force, until today, the prison population doubled.
The overcrowded situation, which even motivated a letter from Pope Francis, generates slow reactions on the part of the Executive Branch. For this reason, the two criminal enforcement judges in the province, Raquel Gass (from Neuquén capital) and Alicia Rodríguez (from the rest of the province) decided last year to close all detention units: they do not authorize new admissions unless there is some discharge. The closure has just been renewed for four months or “until we see bricks.”
The only solution is to create more space. I mean, build more jails. That takes time and money, and the government dedicates little of both.
On Monday, in a hearing before Judge Raquel Gass, the Secretary of Security, Marianina Domínguez, appeared as a witness. She surprised with a proposal: since there is no space and pavilions are not being built, let’s get prisoners out of the province.
as reported Black riverrevealed that could transport 40 people to the Pampa de las Salinas prison complex in San Luis.
The remedy can aggravate the disease if it is not applied correctly. In 2019 the Argentine State was sentenced by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights because Neuquén transferred against their will a group of detainees 800 kilometers away. Saint Louis is 768.
While the San Luis proposal is being studied, Domínguez revealed that progress is being made with the construction of a maximum security pavilion in Unit 11. The work poster has the official slogan: “Here grows a dream”. Recipients may take this as a sign of cynicism, because for them it will be a nightmare.
The pavilion will have capacity for 26 inmates, and the execution period is one and a half years. Hopefully it will be finished by early 2025.
The quota, today
The criminal defender of Execution, Luciana Petraglia asked that the quota of Unit 11 is reduced to 256but judge Raquel Gass resolved to keep it at 265.
According to the director of Detention Units, Chief Commissioner Ricardo Caro, at this time there are 255 peopleof them “22 in sectors not intended for accommodation of persons deprived of their liberty”.
He referred to how they occupy the rooms of intimate visits. He explained that they are located there due to problems living with other inmates.
As for the pre-graduation houses, they still do not have natural gas enabled nor are they all occupied because “there are no inmates in conditions”. Nor are the corresponding reports prepared to determine who is entitled to access the benefit.
Outside the perimeter wall
At the court hearing, Domínguez was asked why they are building the new pavilion outside the perimeter fence of Unit 11and how they will build the new perimeter. “I don’t know, I’m not an architect or an engineer. I know that the project is carried out as approved, “replied the Secretary of Security. According to her LinkedIn profile, she has a degree in International Relations and Foreign Affairs from the Catholic University of Salta. The decree that appointed her to the position in 2022 makes no reference to her specialization.
The works in Senillosa
The official was also questioned, by the public defender Petraglia and the chief prosecutor Maximiliano Breide Obeid, about the always announced and never materialized work of Pavilion 4 in the federal prison of Senillosa.
Domínguez said that the agreement “is already signed between Governor Omar Gutiérrez and the Minister of Justice of the Nation, Martín Soria.” They asked him to display it, but he did not have it with him. “I already sent a copy to the prosecution and the defense,” he said. According to Petraglia, he never came to defense.
Budget and materials
The provincial official spoke of a package that includes the renovation of Pavilion 4, the perimeter fence of the entire unit, a new transformer station, sewage works and ten houses for the personnel of the Federal Penitentiary Service, among others.
Regarding the pavilion specifically, he indicated that “There is the budget, there is the money, but we do not buy the materials”. He added that “the workforce will be provided by the Federal Penitentiary Service.”
Breide Obeid asked him what is the specific obstacle to start the works, and Domínguez explained: “there is a habeas corpus not to enter new inmates. The fear of the federal criminal jurisdiction is the conditions of those who are going to transfer, that they do not generate new inconveniences. That is why it seems important to me to have their agreement before starting. Today, we do not have a start date.
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