“The cell is no more than four square meters. The last time I was there there were six people. They were overcrowded. “There is no possibility of social reintegration with these living conditions.” The reflection is from a judicial official who just a few days ago was in one of the cells at Police Station 31 in Roca.
The practice is common. Since Penal Execution Establishment 2 no longer has space for new inmates, For several months now, the city’s police stations have been overwhelmed by the influx of inmates. (mostly with convictions) who should be at the disposal of the Provincial Penitentiary Service (SPP) in a detention center.
In the province of Río Negro, Roca heads the list, with 52 inmates in police stations, while in Cipolletti the number reaches 20. In Bariloche, the figure is reduced to 8 detainees in police units and in Viedma there have been no inmates in police stations in recent weeks.
The prison situation in Río Negro is also complex. In Roca prison 2, expansion works are being carried out to accommodate a number of inmates who today do not have a guaranteed place.
“Most of them are people who are convicted or detained in cases of gender violence. They do not have a location in the prison because the rest of the inmates attack them, so they are transferred to a police station,” revealed an SPP source consulted by this newspaper.
The most emblematic case is that of the Third Police Station, the most important in Roca and which is located in the heart of the center. TOUntil yesterday there were 14 inmates housed there, but days ago there were up to 17.
Problems for the Police
Having convicted inmates in a police station puts the entire system at risk. “Sometimes they are people who have convictions for other crimes and security is not always ideal for these types of cases,” recalled a commissioner consulted on this issue. And along these lines he pointed out the escape in October 2023, when two inmates escaped from that police headquarters located on Sarmiento and 9 de Julio.
There is a second issue that is not minor. And the minimum conditions are not in place to keep them detained for prolonged periods.
Every day you have to have resources to feed them. “At noon and at night a mobile phone is sent to look for food. Gasoline and personnel who could be assigned to other security tasks are spent there,” said the police source who, for security reasons, requested that his identity not be disclosed.
“To that we must add hygiene and the basic needs of the inmates, which are not guaranteed,” he added.
In total, the figure is distributed as follows: police station 31 (4 detainees), Unit 47 (3 detainees), Third Unit (11 detainees), Unit 21 (8), Unit 22 of Cervantes (1 detainee).
In Allen, in Unit 22 (9), in Villa Regina there is 1 in Unit 35 and 4 in the Fifth Police Station.
In Ingeniero Huergo there is 1 in Choele Choel another and in General Godoy another inmate is housed.
The expansion of the Roca prison
The way out of this complex prison situation is underway, according to the Government of Río Negro. And everything indicates that before the end of 2024 they will finish the work to expand Penal 2 in Roca. There, space is being expanded to open 14 new cells that will accommodate some 108 inmates from different areas of the province.
The work is carried out by the company Mocciola SA, and has an investment that amounts to $314,899,314. Sources from the Ministry of Public Works indicated yesterday that the progress of the work is 46% and could be completed in a period of no more than six months.
In Bariloche there is prison overpopulation
For years we have heard diagnoses of the terrible detention conditions for those convicted and pre-trially prosecuted housed in prison 3 in Bariloche. Due to the lack of places, the guarantee and trial judges have no other alternative than to arrange preventive detentions to be served in police stations in this city and Dina Huapi.
On some occasions, they authorize the accused to comply with the preventive measure under the form of house arrest, with an electronic anklet, to monitor his movements.
In mid-2015, the then Criminal Execution Judge of this city, Juan Martín Arroyo, had ordered in a ruling, after admitting an amparo, a maximum capacity of 94 detainees in the Bariloche prison and had required the Province to carry out works in that building. . There were some renovations to expand capacity, but today it is overflowing, the Public Ministry of Defense warned.
They point out that the cPolice stations in the city are not in a position to hold people under arrest. But there is no other option.
Six inmates escaped from the Third Police Station in the city of Neuquén on Sunday, February 11, of which only one has been captured so far. (file photo)
Neuquén in emergency
The Governments of Neuquén and Río Negro implemented the adversarial criminal procedural system to leave behind the old mixed inquisitorial system. According to specialists, this system brought about changes. ANDThe Judiciary of Neuquén applied it since January 2014 and the Rio Negro put it into effect on August 1, 2017.
There were million-dollar resources in both jurisdictions to face the new challenge, which was in line with what the national Constitution provides. However, the two provinces failed to invest in the prison system, which, according to the new procedural dynamics, multiplied the number of preventive detainees and those convicted.
The annual reports of the National System of Statistics on the Execution of Sentences, prepared by the Directorate of Criminal Policy, which depended on the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights cHe noted that in 2014, in the first year of the implementation of the accusatory model in Neuquén, there were 237 people convicted in the eight detention units that depend on the provincial government, without counting the Senillosa federal prison. And there were 87 defendants detained under preventive detention.
Almost ten years later, The data that the Neuquén Ministry of Security, led by former judge Matías Nicolini, disseminated to provincial legislators indicated that until February 14 there were 682 detainees: 540 convicted in detention units, 55 convicted people housed in Neuquén police stations and 87 detained with preventive measures in police units. Of course, this is data that is not stable. They change all the time due to the dynamics of crime.
A worrying leak
On Sunday, February 11, six inmates housed in the Third Police Station of Neuquén capital escaped. They only captured one. The remaining five are still at large, the MPF reported yesterday. Among those escaped is Marcelo Sosa, sentenced to life for the crime of Miguel Ángel “Ruso” Auer. Sosa should have been in a prison. But there are no places in Neuquén prisons.
The increase in the prison population from 2014 to date is around 251%. That is, it increased by 358 convicts, with practically the same detention units in the province. Judicial sources recalled yesterday that work began last year to expand a pavilion of the U-11 in Neuquén capital. Still, the deficit is serious.
The penitentiary emergency law
They estimate that there are at least 152 places missing in the detention units. That’s whyNeuquén legislators approved by majority on the 16th of this month the law that declares the penitentiary emergency.
Governor Rolando Figueroa promoted the bill that includes an authorization to manage public credit for up to 50 million dollars. With these resources, Figueroa supposedly intends confront the crisis of the system, the lack of service infrastructure and prison overpopulation.
Diario RÍO NEGRO tried to communicate with Nicolini, but there were no answers in the press area.
In these detention conditions where people live with overcrowding and a lack of social rehabilitation policies, it is very difficult to achieve the minimum standards established by the provincial and national Constitution.
“Prisons and all other places intended for serving sentences of deprivation of liberty, in the Province, will be healthy and clean and organized on the basis of primarily obtaining the reeducation and rehabilitation of the detainee, through productive and remunerated work. Any measure that, under the pretext of precaution, leads to physical or moral mortification, will make the person who executes, authorizes or consents to it responsible,” says article 70 of the Neuquén Magna Carta. Article 18 of the national Constitution also calls for “healthy and clean prisons for security and not for punishment of detainees…”
The Rio Negro Constitution has the same spirit. Legislators have not yet declared a prison emergency, but problems of overcrowding and conflicts are daily, especially in the Bariloche prison.