Nahuel Gallotta
02/13/2021 10:14
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 02/13/2021 10:14 AM
"They sell them smoke. There are many promises that cannot be fulfilled. And they believe them. They fantasize."
The one speaking is a teacher who works in the Federal 4 Penitentiary Complex of Ezeiza, the most populated women's prison in Argentina.
It refers to its students and the Educational Stimulus Law, which was on the agenda in recent weeks from the benefit that former vice president Amado Boudou agreed to.
"They spend their time taking accounts: suppose they calculate three months for the courses, plus another three months for having finished high school. The issue is that this is not enough, because everything ends in the decision of a judge, who
never resolves how they resolved with Boudou
", details the educator.
The Educational Stimulus is, in reality, an article (140) of the Law of Execution of the Penalty Deprivation of Liberty, No. 24,660.
The granting of the benefit does not reduce the sentence or sentence.
It only
shortens the time to request benefits such
as temporary exits, assisted freedom or parole, as long as the corresponding court authorizes it.
To understand: in Argentina anyone sentenced to a sentence has the right to request temporary exits after serving half of the sentence.
Then, if the sentence is six years, you can request them to the three of effective compliance.
But if you were granted three months for Educational Stimulus, you can do it after two years and nine months.
Same with parole and assisted.
Each annual school cycle (be it primary, secondary or university level), is equivalent to one month in advance;
an annual vocational training course or equivalent, for two months per year.
Whoever finishes elementary school adds another two months.
The one who graduates from high school, three.
And the one who does the same in a university degree, another four.
The maximum accumulated possible for a detainee is
20 months
.
Amado Boudou was sentenced to five years and ten months for the crimes of "passive bribery and negotiations incompatible with the public function, both in ideal competition."
His lawyers reported that while in Ezeiza Complex 1 and in Unit 31 of the same locality, he had conducted workshops on "Personal computer database system programmer", "Electrician assembler",
"Installer electrician"
, "Practical in event organization "and" Philosophy Workshop ".
The time load of the activities allowed Judge Daniel Obligado to recognize him a ten-month advance in his requests for transitory, conditional or assisted release.
Today, it would be in a position to access transitory exits.
And
in 2022, he could request his freedom
.
Since last April, Boudou has been in house arrest.
Reviewing the table of the months recognized by annual vocational training courses and by university school year, it is understood why the former vice president chose workshops instead of a university degree in the first stage of his detention.
Detainees in federal penitentiary units are screened every three months.
These are criminological reports made by prison staff, which end up in the hands of the judges, and which include a note on "conduct" and "concept".
These writings also include, among other things, whether the detainee works or studies.
From there, the judge determines whether to grant advance payments for Educational Incentive.
They were given to Boudou.
The rest, according to sources consulted by
Clarín
, it costs a little more.
"The issue is that the Execution Courts value the reports of the Penitentiary Service more than the courses or studies. And the judges feed on subjective reports. Here there is
a psychologist for 400 detainees
. Not even the best professional can evaluate so many patients well ", a detainee complains.
And he continues, from a university center of a federal prison: "There is a dissimilarity of criteria, a different assessment. There are colleagues who took the same course, but the court recognized one for two months. And the other, his Court, did not he anticipated nothing ".
"Another problem that the detainees have is that they receive the certificate of studies, but out there
they do not have a lawyer who can move
so that the judge receives the document," the teacher from the women's prison resumed.
"Although there is a regulatory decree that says that the function of the SPF [Federal Penitentiary Service] is to inform the courts, that does not happen. And the judge is not informed about the studies of the detainee. So, they attended in vain."
Another similar problem arises from transfers to units in the interior of the country.
If the detainee has been in the Electricity workshop for eight months, but is sent to another unit, no one will recognize the days spent.
The "descent" is another issue suffered by common detainees.
No matter how much they are enrolled in activities, many times
the prison staff does not summon them
to take them from the pavilions to the education or training sectors, and then they tell the teachers that "their students preferred to stay in the pavilions."
"That happens more than anything with the workshops of the UBA, the Ministry or some NGO. Because when the activity is of the SPF, the prisons take the detainees", says the coordinator of a university career.
For Ariel Cejas, Acting Deputy Prison Prosecutor, it is important to clarify that
it is not easy
for a common detainee
to enroll in a course
, in elementary school, high school or in a university career.
"And whoever succeeds, can enroll in one. It is not easy to do several courses in a year. After completing the workload, everything is at the discretion of the Penitentiary Service and the Court dictates the number of months."
"Later, you have judges who grant you advancement," adds the lawyer, "but they deny you the temporary exit. They can send you to take another course, and while the detainee does it, the months that should advance him go by."
"Many times the judge takes time to resolve. You request an advance of ten months, but he answers you when there are three months left so that we can request the benefit. And
nobody returns those seven months that were left out,
" says the detainee who is studying in a prison federal.
By way of conclusion, a colleague of his adds: "We do not see [Boudou] being ahead of those ten months as a bad thing, because it is within the law. But it would be good to set a precedent, so that everyone can evaluate us in the same way".
LGP
Look also
Amado Boudou managed to reduce his sentence by 10 months for courses he did in prison and may request temporary exits
Together for Change proposed to prohibit the reduction of sentences for educational stimulus in cases of corruption