The publication of the draft of the project is part of a campaign undertaken by the Justice portfolio, aimed at the media, social networks and society in general, with the purpose of socializing the initiative and explaining its scope.
This is how the Minister of Justice, Néstor Iván Osuna, met in a virtual session with the country’s governors and mayors to socialize the bill to modernize the penitentiary system, which seeks to comply with sentences and the social reincorporation of the convicted and that this portfolio will promote in the legislature that begins in Congress.
In this regard, Osuna has said: “We prefer that the debate take place on certain bases. The bill that we are going to file in Congress is not a release bill, much less an impunity bill. It is a project that is focused on restoring the rights of victims, promoting the re-socialization of persons deprived of liberty and establishing a degree of activities for persons deprived of liberty that would allow them to gradually rejoin society.”
What is this project looking for?
• This project seeks to modernize the prison system throughout the country, so that it fulfills its purpose of returning to society people who have taken responsibility for the crimes they committed and who are committed not to commit crimes again.
• It does so through the use of the tools currently in force in the penitentiary law, followed by an elementary principle: the further the individual advances in his resocialization, as long as he has an exemplary conduct in prison, he will be able to progressively rejoin society through of obtaining permits that will be ordered by judges. The difference is in the dynamism with which it is expected to work: if the convicted person meets the requirements, he will obtain more and more progressive permits until the end of his time in prison. But, if he fails to comply at any time, the possibilities of access to the permits are over.
Who could not request the suspension of the execution of the sentence and home detention as an alternative to prison?
• None convicted of sexual crimes against children and adolescents or those convicted of crimes against persons and property protected by International Humanitarian Law (IHL), for serious violations of human rights, against public administration, for crimes committed by the organized crime or serious crimes against citizen security, you can request the suspension of the execution of the sentence or home detention as a substitute for intramural prison.
• Cases such as extortion or theft with violence against people or robberies that are so worrying about the risk that citizens run, will not be covered by this measure.
Will those convicted of sexual crimes against children and adolescents be able to leave prison to work?
• The current legislation is forceful in restricting the release of persons convicted of sexual crimes, particularly if the victims are children and adolescents. In no case are those convicted of sexual crimes against minors allowed to enjoy any benefit that authorizes them to return to the streets. The project maintains all the restrictions already provided for by the legislator.
What benefits does the project bring?
• This project seeks to satisfy the rights of the victims, who until now have been excluded.
• Reduce the costs of the prison system. In order for it to function in decent conditions, it requires a budget of 5.1 trillion pesos.
• The project also seeks to increase security for citizens, because it seeks to reduce recidivism rates, so that a person who has been convicted does not commit crimes again, among other things, because they already knew how hard life in prisons is.
Does the bill propose the reduction of sentences?
• It is not a project to grant a massive reduction in sentences. Nor is it a project of impunity or releases. It is an initiative designed for the safety of citizens, to remove burdens from the judicial system, to address the deficit in access to justice, and to improve the effective capacity of the penal and prison systems. In addition, it opens the door to conciliation in criminal matters in conciliation centers, thus consolidating fast lanes for the termination of conflicts.
Why does the reform bet on resocialization and restorative justice?
• The reform project bets that the time that a person is deprived of liberty is a productive time for him and for society. In Colombia there is no life sentence. All the people who were sentenced to prison, sooner or later, are going to get out of prison.
What is the project looking for as a society?
• It intends that the prisoners become people who contribute to the development of the country and do not continue to swell the crime figures.
• Fattening the catch statistics does not solve the country’s problems. Prisons cannot continue to be schools for crime. They must be transformed into spaces for life, education, dignity, opportunity, repentance and reparation.
Would the initiative, if approved, affect citizen security?
• The humanization of prisons does not conflict with citizen security. Quite the opposite. To the extent that we manage to reduce recidivism, there will be fewer crimes and more security.
What happens when a convicted person fails to comply with the commitments of open prison?
• The convict who fails to comply with the agreements that allowed him to access the permits of an open prison is not only exposed to the revocation of these benefits and his definitive exclusion from the program, but he will also have to face a new criminal process, for example, for escape of prisoners.
To whom would the benefits of open prison be granted?
• These permits are for people who have already served a significant part of their sentence, who are close to recovering their freedom, to pay off their debt to society. If they fail to comply, they would go back to jail, without any benefit. In fact, currently in Colombia about 3,000 people deprived of liberty have access to the 72-hour administrative benefit.
Are you thinking of converting the prisons into a hotel?
• Those who affirm that with the possibility of more convicted persons going to work during the day and returning at night, they are turning prisons into hotels, are unaware that this norm has been in force in the Code of Criminal Procedure and in the Penitentiary Code for more than 20 years, and, what is worse, they minimize what it means to be in prison.
Why are you proposing to eliminate the crime of incest?
• The first. Incest currently carries a penalty of 1 to 4 years. With the project we seek that when the victim is a minor these cases are handled as a crime of aggravated violent carnal access, which has a minimum sentence of 40 years. That is, it is not excarcelable.