Incarcerated
Individuals
Former Inmates
Families
Guards and Administrative Staff
Prison Population
According to data from INPEC and the Office of the Ombudsman, this is the current overview of Colombia’s prison and penitentiary system.
ERON: National Prison Facility (Establecimiento de Reclusión del Orden Nacional).
Total Inmates 167,437
ERON: 104,481
House Arrest: 56,841
Electronic Monitoring: 6,115
Other Prison Facilities
Departmental, Municipal,
and District Prisons: 2,946
Armed Forces Facilities: 430
Subtotal other facilities: 3,376
Gender
Men: 98,304 – 94.1%
Women: 6,177 – 5.9%
Foreign Inmates 5,401
4,866 men and 535 women.
Intramural: 3,949
House Arrest: 1,343
House Arrest with Electronic Monitoring: 109
Individuals of non-Colombian nationality who are held in prison facilities deserve special protection due to that condition.
By country of origin, Venezuelan nationals represent the largest group, with 92.2% (4,981).
Prison Facilities
ERON: 126
Prison facilities: 127
Prison and penitentiary complexes: 5
Regional: 6
Penal colony: 1
Capacity of Colombian Prisons
Capacity: 81,139
Overcrowding: 28.8%
The deprivation of liberty, the social rejection faced by inmates for the crimes they committed, the separation from their loved ones, the stigma within the community, and the coexistence in an environment where values, principles, and laws are violated and morality is not, for most prisoners, a guiding reference, are undeniable realities experienced by those who enter prisons to “pay” for their crimes.
The effects of captivity and isolation generate psychological harm and traumatic behaviors in inmates, severely limiting the chances for true re-education and reintegration into the workforce and society once their sentences are served. Added to this is the real ambivalence in which society sees itself as a victim of the crimes committed by prisoners, while prisoners, in turn, consider themselves victims of a system that rejects them. These polarized feelings call for genuine and ongoing reconciliation to facilitate authentic resocialization in the future.
