Beneficiaries

Inmates

152.000

post-prison population

1.700

Next of kin

632

Guardians and administrative staff

15.469

Prison population

According to INPEC and the Ombudsman data, this is the penitentiary system panorama in Colombia

Total Inmates 176.009

National prison facilities: 96.386
House arrest: 71.344
Electronic monitoring: 4.903
Subtotal INPEC: 172.633

Other prison facilities

Departmental, Municipal and District Prisons: 2.946
Public force facilities: 430
Subtotal other facilities: 3.376

Gender

92,9% men
7,1% women

Foreign inmates: 1562

1.390 men and 172 woman.

People from a nationality other than Colombian, who are in detention facilities, deserve special protection for this fact.

By country of origin, the natives of Venezuela occupy the first place, with 76.6% (1,197). Of this figure, 37.9% (454) are accused (380 men and 74 women) and 62.1% (743) convicted (674 men and 69 women). In total, 88.1% (1,054) are men and 11.9% (143) women.

Prison facilities

ERON: 133
Prison facilities: 127
Penitentiary and prison complexes: 5
Regional: 6
Penal colony: 1

Colombian prisons capacity

Capacity: 82.326
Overcrowding: 18,43%

The privation of freedom, society’s rejection towards prisoners for the crimes they have committed, separation from their loved ones, stigmatization in front of the community, living together in a place where values, principles and laws are transgressed and morality is not a reference for most prisoners, are unquestionable realities experienced by people who enter prisons to “pay” for their crimes.

The effects of captivity and isolation generates psychological damage and traumatic behaviour among the prisoners, making it extremely difficult for them to have any real chance of re-education and reintegration into work and society once they have served their sentence. Added to the above is the real ambivalence in which society considers itself a victim of the crimes committed by prisoners and the latter also consider themselves victims of a system that rejects them. There are polarized feelings for which a true and permanent reconciliation must be sought, which will facilitate genuine re-socialization in the future