In electoral times and much more so on the eve of a presidential election, the candidates for the first magistracy have placed penitentiary activity among their axes of future management. This is in light of the ineffectiveness that the current system demonstrates, within the framework of the criminal continuity (even while imprisoned) of inmate leaders and members of organized local crime gangs.
Some candidates deepened their statements, advancing the characteristics that the prisons acquired under their management.
The actuarial format of prison establishments entered the discussion, with one of the candidates even mentioning that prisons would be private, seeking not only operational but also economic optimization in the administration of this type of establishment.
What is a private prison?
It is one whose management, integral or partial, of its services, is transferred by the State to private providers who invest in the development of penitentiary projects within the framework of the law that governs the activity.
The vast majority pursue profit motives. The administrators of the system can charge the State a fee for the capacity of the prison (whether its accommodation spaces are occupied or not) for its maintenance and operation.
This system is questioned in some countries given that part of the benefits postulated by defenders of public-private participation in penitentiary activity would not only not be fulfilled, but in some cases would have been aggravated.
Service concessions (total or partial) occur in the logic that the private regime optimizes penitentiary activity, ensuring that prisons that operate under this modality can be more efficient, cheaper and humane.
Some studies on the operation of this type of establishments concluded that the rights of people deprived of liberty had not improved since overcrowding had not been solved, medical care services had been degraded, proving - in addition - that this type of prisons They were dedicated to the self-government of criminal structures.
However, there are also models in which the variables analyzed had yielded satisfactory results, even highlighting depending on the treatment provided, especially in coordination with post-prison control, that the levels of recidivism had been significantly reduced.
The operation of these establishments
The private prison generally operates through two management systems, one of a closed cycle and the other of a mixed nature.
The former are completely privately managed, from the construction of the establishment, its operation with all services in charge of the contracting company, including treatment and treatment, plus security functions and extramural transfers of people deprived of liberty.
These contracts between private prison companies and the state usually have a duration of no less than 20 years. Some of longer duration are even recorded.
In this scheme, after the time agreed in the initial contract, the Penitentiary infrastructure remains in the hands of the State, and if the management is considered successful, it may renegotiate its extension.
The second example is more widespread in the world, given that one of the fundamental principles of the democratic rule of law is that the monopoly on the use of force by the State cannot be delegated or transferred.
To the extent that, in privatized units, agents exercise disciplinary and control powers, this state power would be transferred to third parties, generating a collision of constitutional legal principles. Therefore, both treatment and security functions remain in the hands of the state, outsourcing the management of logistical activities.
