In Devoto there is a prison and that prison has 1,900 prisoners, 6 units, a headquarters of the University of Buenos Aires and a problem:
no one wants it there.
The project to move it has been going on for years, so many that it became a kind of
tale of good fortune
for the neighbors and for the prisoners, who pose a series of difficulties linked to the presence of
a prison in the middle of the City.
In 2018, when Mauricio Macri was still president, an agreement between the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of the Nation, the Government of the City of Buenos Aires and the State Property Administration Agency, formalized an unfinished project:
build a new jail to move it.
On March 12 of that year, on the steps of the entrance to the Devoto University Center, within the Federal Penitentiary Complex of the City of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta made an announcement that seemed historic: “We are proud to tell you that we are going to move the Devoto prison," he said.
Public spaces, an urban project and a new image for the neighborhood were the promises. The idea was never so close.
It was not until two years later that the work was put out to tender and the construction of a Federal Penitentiary Unit began in the Marcos Paz prison, with capacity for
2,200 people.
But the pandemic and political disputes threw this project overboard. The Nation provided the money and the work was 70 percent complete. The City did not do its part.
Larreta's excuse for paralyzing it and stopping the project was
the reduction of one point of the co-participation that the Nation
took from the people of Buenos Aires. Without that money, the former head of government said, the work could not be completed.
The property was abandoned. A request for reports made by Judge Sebastián Casanello and executed by personnel from the Federal Penitentiary Service (SPF) described "unusable material, overgrown grasses and
structural problems"
in the place that proposes to solve part of the problems of the City and its prisoners.
The truth is that, according to that report, carried out in February 2024, the Federal Penitentiary Complex VII
is at 72%
.
It would have a capacity of 2,240 places in four institutes, with a particular admission sector, administrative areas, primary health care, education, and job and job training workshops. In addition to recreation and visiting sectors.
However, due to the paralysis of the works, they observed wasted materials, overgrown grasses and a general state of abandonment.
But in addition to the fact that they did not advance with the construction and the need to move Devoto, another serious problem was added: the Buenos Aires police stations have a 200 percent overpopulation, in wardens and offices that do not have the necessary conditions to accommodate pesos. Of the 1,900 deprived of their liberty, 400 have a final sentence and should be transferred to prisons under the custody of the Federal Penitentiary Service.
According to the Buenos Aires Government, they are guarded by 1,500 City Police "who should be fulfilling other functions."
"Political will"
Now, and once again with a national management with a little more affinity with the Buenos Aires government leadership than the previous one, the question becomes evident:
this time they are going to move the Devoto prison?
Although the new Undersecretariat of Penitentiary Affairs, which now depends on the Ministry of National Security, assures that
"there is political will" to complete it,
it will depend on the City whether the project is completed.
"So far, the budget is being finalized. It is estimated that it will be approximately
65 million dollars,"
they indicated, although it is still not clear if this cost is foreseen in the 2024 items. In addition, they added: "The total progress of the work was 72 percent, it includes four pavilions intended for housing prisoners. Two pavilions have an approximate progress of 67 percent, another 55 percent, and the remaining one, 50 percent ".
Although the City can use these items to finish the work,
the custody of the prisoners and the maintenance costs corresponds to the National Government
, which by decision of President Javier Milei took the management away from the Ministry of Justice and transferred them to them. to
Patricia Bullrich.
While these two ministries are fighting over budget items, thinking about moving Devoto seems like
a goal that is too distant
and the response is not unified.
Furthermore, the conflict between the Nation and the City over the payment of the co-participation ordered by the Supreme Court during the government of Alberto Fernández remains unresolved.
The former president never complied with the ruling. And Javier Milei did not do it either
, although it is known that there are
conversations between both administrations.
The fate of the works in Marcos Paz
The most optimistic believe that during this administration the objective of completing the works of Marcos Paz can be achieved, despite the infrastructure deficiencies in many prisons, the pending works in the Litoral Argentino Federal Penitentiary Center, in Coronda, Santa Fé, and in the Agote Penitentiary Complex for Condemned Persons, in Mercedes.
The thing is that in an adjustment scenario like the one carried out by the National Government, thinking about those budget items to house prisoners seems - at the very least - difficult.
Coronda is another complicated point because its urgent completion is a demand of the Santa Fe government, which absorbs many prisoners in
federal drug trafficking cases in its own prisons, such as Piñeiro, which is also in a critical situation.
Other voices in charge of the government's criminal policy wonder "how are we going to close Devoto if we have overcrowded police stations?" The thing is that, as the City Government confirmed when asked by this newspaper, "the completion of the
Marcos Paz property does not solve the problem of the Buenos Aires prisoners."
And they assured that "the number of prisoners detained in police stations or city halls that are not prepared to house them
continues to increase."
And they justified themselves: "The penitentiary system is federal, and it is the National authority that must transfer these prisoners to the corresponding prison facilities. To date, the National Government has committed to solving these transfers, which we hope will happen soon."
The process of moving the Devoto prison should be coordinated with the National Government, which has authority over the Penitentiary Service, and "should be
gradual and in parallel with the decompression process of the Buenos Aires police stations
," they asserted.
But if there are 1,900 prisoners to be transferred, and the rate of arrests in the City has doubled and there are another 2,000 waiting for a place, even with the completion of Marcos Paz's Unit VI, the deficit does not seem close to being resolved.
The judicialization of criminals
The systematic frustrated announcements to move Devoto also led to infrastructure problems resulting from lack of investment. Why maintain a building that will be demolished? It seems logical.
But, as the years went by, the lack of definition around this prison was detrimental to the building situation. In parallel, a collective protection ended in a ruling by Judge Daniel Rafecas that
limits transfers to prevent overpopulation: no more prisoners enter, at least without another leaving first.
Sebastián Casanello carried out another habeas corpus for the situation of those detained in the Criminal Investigation Division of the Argentine Naval Prefecture (INPE). In his ruling he resolved not only to restrict the quotas and order that they be transferred to federal prisons, but also requested reports and "a completion plan for the works" with estimated delivery dates, and established
a period of 20 days for works paralyzed in the 2020 pandemic are reactivated.
The reports were sent but "there is no concrete plan" for reactivation. The City, last year, reported that it would resume talks with the company that won the tender, but there is no progress along those lines.
That ruling is from July 2023 and has not been complied with by the National Executive Branch of the previous administration or this administration, nor by the Government of the City of Buenos Aires. They did not present a concrete plan to resolve the situation.
The habeas corpus presented by Casanello included all prisons under construction and with works delayed. But finally the Federal Court of Criminal Cassation determined that the case be left in the hands of the investigating justice.
S.C.