Penitentiary and Prison
Systems: Policies, Programs and Lessons Learned
Selection by Country
Selection of official information on Penitentiary and Prison
Policies as well as Lessons Learned that determine the response of the
OAS Member States and their relevant penitentiary institutions in
promoting prevention, law-enforcement, rehabilitation and social
reinsertion as primary elements to support modernization of the prisons
systems in the Americas.
The
Federal Penitentiary Service
promotes the
program of individual treatment whose objective is to provide
the inmates with the necessary tools for their future return to the
a life in liberty. This program contemplates the following
aspects: psycho-physical health, education, work, family and social
relations.
For more information
on the lines of action of the Penitentiary Federal Service,
click here.
The
inmate's welfare program is an initiative that provides for
inmates to work within the prison in the various capacities.
It is used as a tool in the rehabilitation process for those inmates
who have little or no skills.
For more information
on the penitentiary system in Belize,
click here.
Community
Corrections: The Correctional Services of Canada promotes
the work of gradually releasing offenders, ensuring that they do not
present a threat to anyone and helping them adjust to life beyond
prison walls. In this regard, the CSC works to prepare
offenders for eventual release, through prison programs that promote
law-abiding lifestyles.
Restorative justice: It emphasizes healing in victims,
meaningful accountability of offenders, and the involvement of
citizens in creating healthier, safer communities. It strives
to provide support and opportunities for voluntary participation and
communication between those affected - victims, offenders and
community - to encourage accountability, reparation and movement
toward understanding, feeling of satisfaction, healing and closure.
The
correctional programs promoted by the Correctional Services of
Canada include the following: general crime prevention program;
violence prevention program; family violence prevention programs;
sex offenders program; community-based correctional program
The
women offender programs include substance abuse programming;
education and employability programs; mother-child programs;
parenting programs; social integration program for women
For more information
on specific programs,
click here.
The
Centers for
Education and Work (CET) managed by
Gendarmería de Chile are
penitentiary centers, or belong to one, in which persons deprived of
liberty serve their sentences by accessing training and work
activities. The goal is to prepare them to face
socio-professional reinsertion once leaving the penitentiary system.
Educational programs
whose objective is to include educational and training activities to
all the actions to support social reinsertion.
The priorities of
the penitentiary and prison policy are the following: 1) the
modernization of the penitentiary and prison structure; 2) the
improvement of living standards, resocialization and respect for the
human rights of the penitentiary population; 3) the assurance of
health to all persons deprived of liberty. For more
information on the penitentiary and prison policy of Colombia,
please click here.
Programs:
Summary of the educational model
used by the National Penitentiary and Prison Policy. Its
objectives are: 1) improve the living conditions of inmates from the
perspective of personal, community development; 2) promote the
development of systems of understanding of inmates through the
examination of objective and subjectives conditions of the emergency
of crime; 4) explore, consolidate and project production systems
that can become work options of quality and competitivity; 5) place
the intellectual and artistic productions of inmates within the
social scenes for acknowledgement and validation; amongst others.
The
Division for Promotion of the National Penitentiary Institute
seeks to promote the creation and organization of Work Training
Programs and productive processes in order to generate the work
abilities of inmates. Thus, it seeks to: 1) guide, support and
supervise professional training programs within industrial
activities, private and public entities; 3) develop and promote
micro-business programs addressed to inmates and support the direct
administration of productive workshops in detention centers.
For more information
on the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute,
please click here.
Strengthening the
system of social rehabilitation through a sustained work along the
process with the inmates in the areas of health, education, work and
family relations
Penitentiary school:
to establish a specialized academic training, at the superior level
Education in the
Centers for Social Rehabilitation
Work and
productivity: to design and implement the work policy within the
Centers for Social Rehabilitation
Alternative,
participative and integral program for adolescents to allow them to
become actors of change in their own behaviors. The project
"Movies with Meaning" seeks to develop and strengthen the
adolescents' capacities through cultural activities.
National
Rehabilitation Strategy: it is a blue print that seeks to guide
the Department of Correctional Services in managing rehabilitation
as a core strategic function.
Programas:
For more information
on the Juvenile Correctional Centers,
click here.
Work permits: this resocialization program seeks to promote
resocialization and gradual reinsertion of inmates to the community
as part of the work force.
Education permits: this resocialization program seeks to allow
inmates to initiate or continue formal studies in an authorized
educational center during the day and according to the schedule
established by the technical group responsible for exit permits.
Paraguay
Programs:
The
subprogram to strengthen penitentiary management implemented by
the Ministry of Justice and Work of Paraguay includes the following
actions: 1) improve and adapt health, education and food services,
psychosocial support, judicial assistance for inmates and adolescent
offenders; 2) include technologies for the integral administration
system of criminal causes; 3) include technologies for the efficient
operation of security and prison control, correction centers and
educational centers; 4) generate an articulated work with the
judiciary in particular and with civil society organizations.
Educational Programs: these programs are implemented by the
Subdirection of penitentiary education of the National Penitentiary
Institute of Peru. The objective is to strengthen the level of
teaching and learning of inmates within the penitentiary
establishments according to the educational level and program.
The areas of work are literacy, non-formal education, recreational
activities, sports, health education, environmental education,
artistic activities.
Penitentiary Work: this is offered by the Penitentiary
Administration through the implementation of professional workshops
within penitentiary institutions
The National Penitentiary Institute of Peru also
works on health issues, social assistance, legal assistance,
psychological assistance. For more information on these
programs, click here.
Work
Program for Inmates (Policy no. 8120.02, issued on 7/15/99): The
objective of this policy is to allow inmates the opportunity to
acquire the knowledge, skills and work habits which will be useful
when released from the institution.
Education,
training and leisure-time program (Policy no. 5300.21, issued on
2/18/2002): The objective of this policy is to afford inmates the
opportunity to improve their knowledge and skills through academic,
occupation and leisure-time activitiesFor more information on
policies implemented by the Federal Bureau of Prisons,
click
here.
"The
penitentiary policy in the framework of the new humanitarian
conception" (Spanish only) - Ministry of Popular Power for
Interior Relations and Justice - November 2008
This policy promotes, amongst other things, the autonomy of
detention centers for women and the acknowledgement of women
deprived of liberty
Programs:
project for the multidisciplinary support to
women inmates
integration of women inmates/unities of penitentiary
protection
project to promote penitentiary readings); project of
penitentiary humanization; a penitentiary symphonic orchestra
a
community project of social production through the creation of
special installations designed to learn and train, promoting a
socially useful work.
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