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The country’s prisons have been the perfect breeding ground for the spread of COVID-19. Today there are 1,118 positive cases of this disease and more than 17,000 inmates have been infected.
Social distancing: that could be the combination of words that Colombians have heard the most times during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since last March 6, when the first woman was diagnosed with the virus after landing from a flight from Milan (Italy), the Government has taken different measures with the aim of avoiding contact in different scenarios, ranging from the implementation of the teleworking until the closure of multiple social spaces. But, what has happened in places where social distance is practically zero? The prison authorities are indebted to the inmates, as it has been a challenge to reduce statistics such as the following: while in freedom only one in 1,000 people is infected, in Inpec centers the figure rises to 11.28.
The reason for such a phenomenon could be found in the eternal problem that no administration has been able to solve: overcrowding. According to data from the Inpec, since the end of the last century the population in the country’s prisons has tripled. In 1998 the figure was 44,439 and for 2013 there were more than 120 thousand. At the beginning of this year, this problem was getting out of hand, since overpopulation reached 55%. When the pandemic landed in Colombia, the citizen in freedom, in general, could choose how much he was exposed in the middle of the restrictions. The prisoner of liberty, however, has never had any other option but to share each breath of air with four and five people in cells measuring four square meters. COVID-19 was not long in unfolding over prisons.
The first case of coronavirus in the Inpec centers was registered in April, when a person who was in the Villavicencio jail was released and died a few days after presenting symptoms. The alarms went off immediately, especially because days before the case, from there, a bus transferred nine inmates to Yopal, Guaduas, Florencia and Bogotá, in response to the night of riots that occurred in Villavicencio and in the capital of the country. Since then, the national numbers have grown exponentially to a peak of 3,202 inmates infected at the same time (June 28). According to the Inpec, in total, 17,998 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19. The establishments where the most cases have been registered are La Picota de Bogotá, with a total of 1,706 and, later, La Picaleña de Ibagué, with 1,400.
As for women, the prison where more infections have occurred is in El Buen Pastor, in Bogotá, with a total of 900 confirmed cases in a population that, since 2015, has exceeded 2,000 inmates and has withstood overcrowding of more than 70%. This is followed by the Armenia Women’s Prison, in Quindío, with a total of 136 positives, and the Sogamoso medium-security prison and prison facility, in Boyacá, with 109. On the other hand, according to statistics from the Ministry of Health, there are 69 inmates lost their lives due to COVID-19 in the national territory. The worst hit center continues to be La Picota de Bogotá, where 14 people died. Also, the virus drowned the lives of dozens of inmates in more than 16 capital cities.
Today General Norberto Mujica, director of Inpec, assures that the problem is controlled. He has even signed a decree to reactivate the 72-hour monthly permits and, according to him, the inmates will soon return to receive visits from relatives and lawyers. Regarding overcrowding, he says: “Today we only have 23.3%, that allows us to say that we are on the right track,” he says. According to the director, the reduction in overpopulation – which is still a high number – is due to the adoption of Decree 546 of April 14, 2020, which the Government issued in order to contribute to the management of the pandemic. Even so, the effects of such regulations have been miniscule, as only 1,151 inmates have been released under this measure (the Ministry of Justice aspired to release almost 5,000 inmates this way). In fact, more than 19 thousand people have been freed by ordinary mechanisms.
Inpec officials have not escaped experiencing the pandemic firsthand. According to the institute, 81 members have been affected by the virus. Most (66) are part of the custody and surveillance body. This time the La Picota prison, in Bogotá, registered outstanding numbers, because according to the Inpec, no official has become ill during the eight months in which the virus entered the veins of the prison system. However, COVID-19 has claimed the lives of nine officials of the institution, between the ages of 35 and 57. The union leader Óscar Robayo assures that, in one of the prisons in Cauca, where the Inpec registers two deceased officials, the dragoon Alcides Daza presented a telework request, but “he died of coronavirus and the director did not answer that request.”
According to Manuel Iturralde, director of the Prison Group of the Universidad de los Andes, the pandemic uncovered a prison system that has been denigrating since 1998: “It looks like a patchwork quilt.” In fact, since that year the country has not been able to overcome one of the most serious violations of the current Magna Carta: the unconstitutional state of affairs. Through three judgments, in 1998, 2013 and 2015, the Constitutional Court has ruled on the difficult situation in the country’s prisons. In the latest ruling, Judge Gloria Stella Ortiz recorded an evaluation that has not been heard either: “The historical management of criminal policy in the country has contributed to perpetuating the massive violation of the fundamental rights of persons deprived of liberty and prevents , at present, to achieve the resocializing end of the sentence ”, he sentenced.
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