The bill on the reform of Justice that will be presented by the Minister of Justice, Néstor Osuna, seeks to allow people who are serving intramural sentences to go out to work, has generated a series of reactions at the national level. On this occasion, the mayor of Barranquilla, Jaime Pumarejo, spoke about it.
The Barranquilla president said that although he agrees with the proposal launched by the national government, they cannot allow criminals to benefit. “We cannot allow whoever commits dangerous crimes and attacks third parties with firearms to not have benefits until they serve their sentences in prisons,” he said.
“We are dealing with an ambiguous system, seeing how criminals who are found in flagrante are receiving benefits such as house arrest or who are not being classified as dangerous criminals when they are charged,” added Pumarejo.
In this way, the president was emphatic on the need for joint work between the high courts, the Police and the territorial entities to provide results against insecurity in the city. He called for people who are caught and represent a danger to society to serve their sentences in prisons, and those who have merit seek reconciliation with society so that they can be productive members.
“We ask that whoever is captured with a grenade or firearm have the criminal consequences that they should have. Now, whoever has earned their merits to resocialize to civilian life is welcome, but you have to be very careful because today the citizens are demanding results from us in the face of the crime wave in the city,” said the mayor of Barranquilla.
Finally, Jaime Pumarejo concluded that he was already in talks with the Minister of Justice and it is intended to seek a policy that seeks to resocialize. According to the president, more than 4,000 people have a house in prison in Barranquilla, most of them have effective surveillance and have been found committing crimes under this measure.
For her part, the mayoress of Bogotá, Claudia López, lashed out on Wednesday, January 25, against the proposal to reform the prison system. Before the microphones of the Blu Radio station, López stated that she was concerned about the security in the cities if some prisoners are released, especially in Bogotá.
“I am more concerned with the humanity of the streets than with the humanity of the prisons. This is not to say that you don’t have to deal with overcrowding. I have been here for three years and the only prison in Colombia that has been resocialized is the Bogotá District Prison,” said the mayoress in the aforementioned outlet.
He added that citizens will not feel safe with the release of criminals, who despite failures in the judicial system have been able to be imprisoned.
“It is easy to speak in the abstract. The people who are robbed with knives do not want to see the criminal the next day. This is the fair of impunity. Impunity populism. They want to release them all. If they rob or steal it doesn’t matter, poor things. This is a social state of law,” said López.
But, the Minister of Justice, Néstor Osuna, did not take long to respond, this time through the microphones of the W Radio station, in which he stated that: “I recognize the value of the mayoress, but it is not a release project, It is a project that aims for victims to have reparation. It is not about release, it is about re-socialization inside the prisons”.
He explained that the bill is based on the experience of the Government in prison matters, but that its approval already depends on the Congress of the Republic. “The Government proposes and Congress disposes,” he exclaimed.
“What can be achieved is that whoever offends does not do it again and so far it is not being achieved (…) I understand the figures, I understand the scare, but what we want to do is that those who have already been convicted do not return to commit crimes,” he said. with Infobae