https://doi.org/10.37955/cs.v6i3.275
Received February 09, 2022 / Approved June, 12 2022 Pages: 25-35
eISSN: 2600-5743
Prison situation, analysis Ecuador
year 2022
Situación carcelaria, analisis Ecuador año 2022
Arelis Jazlin Vinces Vargas
Law student at the International University of Ecuador, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-
6166-8598 arvincesva@uide.edu.ec, arelisvincesv28@gmail.com
Luis mauricio maldonado ruiz
Master in Criminal Justice and Criminology, Universidad del Este, Puerto Rico
lumaldonadoru@uide.edu.ec, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0956-7869
ABSTRACT
The penitentiary system of Ecuador has undergone in recent years changes
in form and substance that have altered for better or worse the coexistence
and everything that means its social rehabilitation processes in our country,
before these last two years there have been a series of events around the
Ecuadorian prison system that put it in the center of the news and
investigative agenda nationally, in the region and in the world. Crime rates
and a bloody coexistence among the actors that make up the rehabilitation
and social readaptation system of the country have been increasingly
marked by a series of aspects both internal and external to the rehabilitation
system itself.
RESUMEN
El sistema penitenciario del Ecuador ha sufrido en los últimos años cambios
buscando de forma como de fondo que han alterado para bien o para mal el
convivir y todo lo que significa sus procesos de rehabilitación social en
nuestro paÃs, ante estos dos últimos años ha existido una serie de hechos
alrededor del sistema penitenciario ecuatoriano que lo ponen en el centro de
la agenda noticiosa e investigativa a nivel nacional, en la región y en el
Centro Sur Vol. 7 No. 1- January - March - Revista Centro Sur - eISSN: 2600-5743
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mundo. Los Ãndices de criminalidad y una sangrienta convivencia entre los
actores que componen el sistema de rehabilitación y readaptación social del
paÃs se han visto cada dÃa más marcados por una serie de aspectos tanto del
fuero interno y externo al mismo sistema de rehabilitación.
Keywords / Palabra clave
crisis carcelarias, rehabilitación social, polÃticas públicas, personas privadas
de libertad
prison crisis, prison crisis, social rehabilitation, public policy, prisoners,
public policies
Introduction
The criminal swing in which our country finds itself day by day, has
been on the media agenda every day, there is not a day or week in
which our country does not talk about the war waged by the
authorities and the state power against organized crime or common
crime, There is undoubtedly something that has captured the
attention of all and sundry regarding the criminality of our country,
as it has surpassed the limits of human conscience and of course has
exceeded the limits of the media agenda of our country, seeing us in
the eye of the hurricane of international public opinion and human
rights organizations.
Undoubtedly I refer to what happens inside the social rehabilitation
centers of Ecuador, for many this may simply be a reflection of what
happens outside the cells and it is nothing more than a bomb that
exploded for not taking the necessary precautions when they should
have been taken, in short there are many hypotheses that experts and
non-experts in the subject throw in order to find a reason for the
most atrocious massacres that our country has experienced perhaps
in its republican history. The present document has as its main and
only objective, from a purely technical point of view, to establish, by
quantitatively measurable variables, the objective of these massacres
that have already claimed the lives of hundreds of Ecuadorians
deprived of liberty, and who unfortunately were never able to fulfill
their objective of rehabilitation and later reintegration into society
once they have served their sentence.
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For this we will put these technicians as, the level of overcrowding
that in this lapse of years have happened to have the different centers
of social rehabilitation with which our country counts and yes also
how much the prison population has grown or has been reduced, how
much is the percentage in which it grows or decreases this prison
population, But above all, we will focus on the public policies
inherent to the rehabilitation and social reinsertion of persons
deprived of liberty in our country, as well as their implementation by
the competent authorities who are in charge of more than 11,000
people who wait day by day for a new opportunity after serving a
sentence. (OBSERVATORY OF RIGHTS AND JUSTICE , 2022)
Materials and Methods
The methods used in this research are qualitative, since a case study
was conducted on the prison crisis in the Penitenciaria del Litoral del
Guayas of Ecuador, as well as articles, jurisprudence, figures, in order
to determine the problem and develop its content and therefore
possible causes and solutions. The information for this research was
obtained from the National System of Integral Attention to Persons
Deprived of Liberty, from press releases issued by the Presidency of
Ecuador, the Ministry of the Interior, these sources are the basis to
corroborate the existence of the problem investigated.
Results
The discussion within this research is about addressing the Prison
Crisis that has occurred in Ecuador, specifically in the Penitentiary of
Litoral del Guayas during the years 2021/2022. A thorough study will
be carried out to determine the possible causes of this crisis, and will
establish solution mechanisms that can be taken by the prisons and
the Ecuadorian State, so that it does not continue to impact on a
State of rights and dignity, and especially to those who are paying a
sentence.
It is normal to talk about prison crises, when we analyze in detail the
daily life inside prisons not only in our country but worldwide, we
can say then that no prison worldwide throughout its history has
failed to experience crises in its management from the simplest to the
most complex, In our country, the prison system has been abandoned
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for decades and if we analyze in detail each of the prisons we can say
that some of them have been abandoned for hundreds of years and
have been gradually moving away from their primary objective,
which is the social rehabilitation of those who have broken the law or
have committed an act of an unlawful nature.
As an example to better understand what we have just stated, we can
take as a reference the old rehabilitation center number 1 for men of
Pichincha or also called former prison GarcÃa Moreno, a
rehabilitation center full of history because there also happened
episodes that today we know and remember as sadly famous episodes
for the political and republican history of Ecuador, This prison that
was built in 1879 with a capacity to house only 270 people, was not
intervened structurally and in depth ever in its history until the year of
its total closure in April 2014 that on that same date of closure came to
house up to 1610 people deprived of liberty. (SECRETARY FOR
WOMEN AND HUMAN RIGHTS, 2022).
These data that we have just provided as simple background
information are very important to remember throughout the study of
this document, because these data give us a first image of what we
should notice to understand in depth the prison crisis of the
rehabilitation center that will be the product of the specific study that
we will carry out. The PenitenciarÃa del Litoral or rehabilitation
center number 1 for men Guayas, was built in 1954 by the former
president José MarÃa Velasco Ibarra, as the most ambitious
construction project in terms of social rehabilitation that was made
until then not only in Ecuador but at the level of the entire Latin
American region.
This rehabilitation center in the 60's, even became a reference for
other penitentiaries that were built in countries like Colombia or
Peru, the construction was so ambitious that in the year of its
inauguration in March 1954, this rehabilitation center had a
maximum capacity for 1500 people deprived of liberty, This was
undoubtedly one of the largest buildings constructed at that time in
Ecuador and of course it was the most imposing building or structure
capable of housing people that existed in the country, because even
with this capacity the rehabilitation center at that time did not even
reach 30% of its maximum capacity.
Almost 60 years passed, and as in the former Garcia Moreno prison,
during all this time no structural or fundamental reforms were made
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to this social rehabilitation center that with the passage of time and
gradually lost its north of social rehabilitator to become an assigner
of human beings. So far, in 2013, the construction of a new social
rehabilitation center was ordered through the now defunct Ministry
of Justice, in order to be able to cancel this outdated and antiquated
building, which did not meet the minimum requirements of survival
and human rights to which all people are subject by the simple fact of
being beings of reason and understanding (VEGA, 2006). (VEGA,
2006)
We can note then that the same sequence of facts is repetitive when
we analyze these two social rehabilitation centers, the first as a
reference and exemplary object and the second on which we will land
our analysis and study for this document, the repetitive data would be
that over the years no structural changes were made not only in its
buildings but also in the management that these rehabilitation centers
gave for the fulfillment of its objectives which were to rehabilitate
people who at the time were tried and sentenced to achieve social
reintegration mechanisms.
The prison massacres in the penitentiary of the coast or rehabilitation
center number 1 for men Guayas, day by day becomes a vox populi
and unfortunately in facts every day more repetitive, These events
have even made Ecuador look like a failed state that cannot exercise
control or the minimum roles of the State within a rehabilitation
center of 12 pavilions where the most dangerous criminals of this
country are mixed with all kinds of human beings who pay day by day
a sentence that many times becomes a martyrdom rather than a
process of reintegration and social rehabilitation.
The analyses that are made about the prison crisis in our country in
general, without finding separate objectives to try to explain a
phenomenon as complex as the one that 8000 human beings live day
by day, in this research we will try to give the broad vision to find the
true magnitude or scope of the problem that we face as Ecuadorian
society, likewise, to highlight the seriousness of the problem that
often goes unnoticed by all of us who make up this country.
Let's take this last data and compare it with the one we gave at the
beginning of this introductory part, let's remember that we
mentioned that the penitentiary of the coast in its construction in
1954 had a maximum capacity for 1500 persons deprived of freedom,
today it has 12 pavilions and registers an average of 700 to 800
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persons deprived of freedom, Unfortunately, in order to demonstrate
the problem, until the writing of this document, there is no exact
number of persons deprived of their liberty in the penitentiary of the
littoral, since for the first time in the history of this country, a prison
census is being carried out in order to have exact figures and make
decisions based on them. (IACHR, 2022)
Criminal Disputes and their Incidence in the Criminal
Sphere
Until the year 2020 there were hegemonic groups in Ecuador, they
spoke a lot of territory the criminal activities they developed, prisons
had become for these criminal structures in supply centers and
monetary provisioning, The control of prisons gives these hegemonic
groups a certain increased power to the one they already had in the
streets or in the largest cities of the country, controlling the prison
system would then become for the members of criminal groups a very
favorable wild card if they were judged and had to serve a prison
sentence in any of these. (AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, 2022)
As we have already explained in the background, the penitentiary of
the littoral, being the largest social rehabilitation penitentiary in this
country, will undoubtedly coexist within the same space several
members of various gangs or organized criminal groups in the
country, In this penitentiary center of which our study is mainly
concerned, there is no differentiation of the prison population based
on their dangerousness or the criminal types that have led them to be
sentenced, but rather there is a type of differentiation by their related
gang or to which they are members, because according to the prison
system of Ecuador this generates greater security for people as long
as they are grouped among equals.
In the year 2020 a hinge effect occurs within the criminal game of
our country, there is a brutal rupture of criminal groups that at the
beginning were allies and now have great differences and disputes
over territory for criminal activities, within these disputes it was
inevitable that the prison system that they controlled as a single
group in the past was left out, It is important to repeat that the
control of the penitentiary systems has become a wild card for these
criminal structures, and within the penitentiary centers there is a
kind of very broad market of various legal and illegal products that
generate great profits for these structures.
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Within the penitentiary centers, among other things, there is a
growing consumption of controlled substances, and only the criminal
structures that control the different penitentiary centers and the
pavilions specifically are the ones that can distribute this type of
products to the other inmates, Taking as a reference the figures that
we measured above for the number of consumers that exist within
the pavilions of the male penitentiary center number 1 Guayas, we
can get a clear idea of how much money daily or monthly moves
within these pavilions and then we will know why it is so important
not to lose control of them for the criminal structures.
Therefore, we can say that the control of the largest penitentiary
center in the country, beyond any other circumstance, becomes a
center of dispute translated more towards the monetary than the
territorial, which added to other aspects that we will develop later will
help us to better understand the problem that we are trying to elucidate
and understand in a better way.
The abandonment of public prison policies.
During 2013 the project for the construction of the Guayas regional
prison number 1 was presented, with this project it was intended to
build a modern social rehabilitation center that with infrastructure
according to current prison security standards fulfills its role of being
a rehabilitation center suitable to keep the prison population and the
civilian population in general safe, the project had a cost of 78 million
dollars, with this new infrastructure it was also intended to cancel the
so sadly famous penitentiary of the littoral. (SNAI, 2013)
During the first months of construction of this new social
rehabilitation center, major changes were noted in terms of health
and safety both inside and outside the social rehabilitation center, the
prison population had a new center that provided them with security,
tranquility and the necessary means to meet the objective of the
sentence, that after serving it, they could be reintegrated into social
life and work with equal opportunities.
Once the construction of this regional social rehabilitation center was
completed, it was thought that the migration of inmates from one
prison to another would be progressive, and once this process was
completed, the penitentiary on the coast would close its doors for
good, but this was not achieved due to a simple planning and
calculation error at the time of projecting the capacity of this center
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that would house not only the prison population of the penitentiary
on the coast but also many others.
The penitentiary of the coast had in 2015 a prison population close to
3500 people, the construction project of the regional prison of
Guayas had a projection to house 3412 people, being forced then to
make changes and a last minute expansion to reach 4500 places.
(SNAI, 2013) (FLACSO, 2016)
We can realize then that the project that was intended to cancel the
sadly famous penitentiary of the coast rehabilitation center number 1
for men Guayas, began erroneously and taking into consideration the
data mentioned above we can say then that it was even improvised,
with these data we can also conclude this point by saying that the main
objective of building this new rehabilitation center which was to reduce
overcrowding was never fulfilled and even worsened, taking into
account that today are in full operation and with overcrowding both
social rehabilitation centers.
On the other hand, in 2018 the Ministry of Justice, Human Rights
and Worship was eliminated, an entity whose objective among others
was to articulate the mechanisms and public policies of social
rehabilitation and social reintegration of persons deprived of liberty,
i.e. the National Service of attention to persons deprived of liberty
(SNAI) at that time, depended directly on the guidelines dictated by
this extinct ministry, which after its elimination by Executive Decree
number 491 of former President Lenin Moreno Garcés, depending
since then on different ministries, thus leaving in the air the
articulation of the different public policies applicable to the social
rehabilitation of persons deprived of liberty and the social
rehabilitation system in general. (PRESIDENCIADELECUADOR,
2018)..
When we try to observe whether a certain criminal activity has grown
or not during a certain period of time, it is generally complicated
since these are clandestine movements and because of this
clandestinity, it is not so easy to quantify, but it is possible to unveil
certain factors where the analyst can realize if there was an upward or
downward inflection in the data of criminal activity, An example of
such data can be the number of seizures of illicit substances that are
made during a certain period of time, thus, in our country according
to official figures of the Ministry of the Interior closes a record year in
seizures of controlled substances, reaching 200 tons seized (Ministry
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of Interior, 2022). (MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR, 2022) which
means a new record in seizures.
This data shows what is currently happening with the penitentiary
system in our country, but rather one of the many reactions to the
new record of seizures of illicit organizations, which means that their
income and their market, which they generally used to finance their
illicit activities and sell them subject to control, is reduced, The new
record of seizures of illicit organizations, which has led to a reduction
in their income and their market, which they generally use to finance
their illegal activities and to sell these controlled substances, is
reduced, as they try to fight for the minimum territory and
opportunity they have to exploit and make their power prevail over
other criminal organizations and even prevail over the public forces and
the coercive power of the State, which in one way or another tries to hit
these illegal structures financially.
Complementing what we mentioned in the previous paragraph, we
must add certain aspects that are preponderant in saying that what is
currently happening with the prison system is the result of the
struggle that exists between the organizations outside the law and the
power of the State, if the prison system is splashed by these struggles
is because there is some permissiveness or possibility that these
permeate within the prison system of our country. (VELASCO, 2022)
As mentioned earlier in this document, the elimination of the
Ministry of Justice as an entity that coerced public policies towards
the penitentiary system and other systems that indirectly influence it
has caused a brake on the financing of initiatives for social
rehabilitation and security within social rehabilitation centers.
Finally, another factor that has a preponderant influence on the
social rehabilitation system being affected by these struggles that
occur or originate outside these, is due to structural issues that are
the ultimate consequence of all the causes that we have analyzed in
this document, we are talking about the level of overcrowding that
had had an exceptional rise for many years, We are talking about the
level of overcrowding that had had an exceptional rise for many years,
and of which we did not even have real and accurate data on how
serious it was until December 2022, which is that we can deprive of
liberty, when if we add the capacities of all the centers of deprivation
of liberty in our country and for the number of persons deprived of
liberty that were designed at the beginning gives us as a result a level
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of overcrowding of more less than 8% currently when according to
the same data of SNAI at the beginning of that same year the
overcrowding was 31%. (SNAI, 2013)
Conclusions
Based on the data analyzed and inferences we have made within this
paper we can conclude that:
The crises in our country's penitentiary system are the product of
both external and internal factors that allow them to form a kind of
breeding ground where it is very easy for any change, no matter how
small, in social rehabilitation to produce outbursts so strong that they
claim dozens of human lives in the most chilling and inhumane ways
known in the history of our country.
The abandonment of public policies for many years that served to
treat and manage the social rehabilitation system in our country in a
comprehensive manner contributes in an overdimensioned way to
the fact that the State has lost control of the penitentiary centers for a
long time and these obey the instructions given by the criminal
structures that are inserted in one way or another within our country
and that among them have power struggles.
The high levels of overcrowding in the penitentiary system of our
country until a few months ago was a triggering factor at the time of
any type of crisis, large or small, within the social rehabilitation
centers, since having a large number of people overcrowded in
infrastructures and conditions that were not suitable for the number
of people held there, made the control of these situations and of the
centers in general increasingly complicated as the prison population
in our country grew in an unquantified manner.
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