As a result of the escalation of insecurity and after threats to the governor of Santa Fe, Maximiliano Pullaro, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich announced a new protocol for high-risk prisoners.
The measure seeks
greater security measures in prisons,
greater decentralization in surveillance and decision-making over prisoners, and reducing the contact they maintain with the outside world.
The protocol, according to the Ministry of National Security, follows guidelines from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and came into effect last Friday, when it was communicated in the Official Gazette.
It is focused on prisoners who have the
resources to escape, run businesses or order crimes to be committed from prison,
intimidate or corrupt prison officials, hinder judicial investigations and coerce other inmates to achieve criminal objectives.
“In our prisons, there are people who occupy the upper hierarchical links of drug and criminal organizations, whose directives are then followed by other people from the outside, on the street,” Bullrich said during the announcement at the Ezeiza prison.
This new action plan, the minister said at a press conference, seeks to “fight insecurity, drug trafficking and mafias.”
The director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Julián Curi, tells
Clarín
: “This protocol is already operational in the federal maximum security prisons of Ezeiza and Marcos Paz, and in a prison population of 150 to 200 high-risk inmates: types who They have notable operational capacity.
Narcos, asphalt pirates, leaders of human trafficking gangs
.”
At the time of the protocol's presentation, more than a quarter of the inmates considered high risk have already been notified of their upcoming confinement in Ezeiza, the first in which the protocol will be active.
Eight pavilions of this prison are already in a position to receive these inmates.
The text communicating the protocol specifies that prisoners will be housed in single-cell units.
What is it about?
“Pavilions dedicated purely to this type of population, very dangerous inmates, and in which
prison staff trained for contact with them
will work .
The workers in these pavilions will do so only there, they will not rotate to other sectors with prisoners who committed minor crimes.”
Who are these pavilions designed for?
Curi lists them: Miguel Ángel “Mameluco” Villalba, Raúl “Dumbo” Rivera, the Canteros.
The drug trafficker Miguel Angel "Mameluco", one of those who would be affected by the new protocol.
Photo Archive / Daniel Dabove
The protocol attempts to take extreme precautions without deviating from the guarantees of rights for prisoners.
They will continue to have communication, but more limited.
They will continue to have visits, but with greater controls.
And, since it is a political decision, Curi declares, it needs the support of justice so that there is effective compliance with the protocol.
What changes with the new protocol
The new protocol provides that any contact with visitors (only direct family members and legal defenders may be) will be through a
call center, without physical contact
.
All telephone communications will be through
one-way public telephones
, so prisoners
will not be able to receive calls from outside
, and they will also be monitored.
In turn, any request for the prisoner's temporary release will be evaluated in three steps: first, by the professional who treats the prisoner during his confinement;
then, by the director of the area to which that professional reports;
and, finally, by the prison management.
Ariel "Guille" Cantero, leader of "Los Monos", would also be housed under the new security measures.
Photo Ale Bar
The protocol also provides for measures regarding the personnel and facilities of maximum security prisons.
Regarding prison staff, there are three aspects to mention: the constant rotation of workers and the stipulation of shorter work shifts, as well as the exemption from the need for prison workers to identify themselves with their real data.
For the latter,
identity encryption
work and the use of pseudonyms will be established.
Regarding facilities, the installation of a greater number of surveillance cameras is planned in corridors, workshops and visiting spaces of maximum security prisons, with the aim of not leaving any blind spots.
On the other hand, the protocol calls for the installation of
thermal cameras, X-ray machines and visitor search standards similar to those at airports.
Raúl Martín Maylli Rivera, better known as "Dumbo."
Asked if there will be signal inhibitors in the wards dedicated to these inmates, the Federal Penitentiary Service declares that there will be no, because it is an old technology and does not guarantee non-communication, and that, instead of disqualification, it prefers to go for traceability of communications, if there are violations: knowing who uses a cell phone, who violates the rule.
The expert's opinion
Gabriel Ganón is a lawyer specialized in criminal law, criminal justice and multi-agency crime prevention.
In addition, he was General Defender of the province of Santa Fe, which has one of the highest crime rates in the country and the region.
“The best thing would have been to allocate the financing to build
a prison for high-risk prisoners
, and not try to recondition other prisons.
If it were not done, the effort would be insufficient because those who are truly high risk have intelligence devices capable of circumventing the protocol,” Ganón comments to
Clarín
.
What would be the difference between the current adaptation proposed by the protocol and the construction of new prisons for high-risk prisoners?
“On the one hand, the monitoring structure that is exercised over the prisoners, which must be closed circuit and without any blind spots: this includes constant monitoring of the cells themselves, and strict control of communications,” he asserts.
The counterexample, according to Ganón, is represented by cases such as the Red Command, a Brazilian narcocriminal gang that continues to operate from inside prisons.
Everything that Bullrich wants to avoid, and also society.
But for Ganon, the issue does not end there.
Another aspect that he considers important is to be clear about who the high-risk prisoners are:
they are the leaders of the organizations, not other lesser members
.
According to Ganón, sometimes everyone is labeled the same and that is not convenient, but counterproductive.
“Let's think about it operationally: the best way is to invest in maximum security prisons, as happens in the United States.
Special prisons must be created with 24-hour surveillance of the prisoners and the prisons themselves.
Furthermore, if you do this only with the bosses,
you avoid habeas corpus actions due to permanent surveillance in their cells.
There would not be much legitimacy for them to claim human rights violations,” he concludes.
Esteban Rodríguez Alzueta is the director of the Social and Cultural Studies Laboratory (LESyC) on Urban Violence of the Department of Social Sciences of the National University of Quilmes.
For him, there is a cocktail that clouds the correct conception of what a high-risk prisoner is: there are those who are violent and there are those who have operational capabilities, different things.
“The prisons were won by the transas and the drug traffickers, who have operational capacity, but do not necessarily exercise the violence that we witness.
The violence of these street kids who go to prison for a few years is a mere instrument for these drug traffickers,” explains Rodríguez Alzueta.
“Here is the big problem: we have
a penal system that, far from solving the problems, aggravates them
from the moment the price of crime increases,” he adds.
Now, for him, these grays are where we need to go deeper.
The measures taken against insecurity will never be enough.
In countries where new maximum security measures are continually adopted, the expansion of illegal economies and organized crime has not been stopped.
For the latter, he agrees with Ganón that a better solution would be to build extreme security prisons, rather than recondition the existing ones: “This protocol takes up the United Nations document and talks about single-cell accommodation adapted to international standards, and the truth is that “The prison system establishments in our country do not have that type of infrastructure.”
MG