The Chilean Government’s Attempt to Reform and Close Cárcel Ex-Penitenciaría (CDP Santiago Sur): ¿Mientras más cambian las cosas, más se mantienen igual?

• Author: Bárbara Barraza Uribe,Jeffrey Ian Ross
• Date: 01 March 2019
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567717739086
• Published date: 01 March 2019
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

The Chilean Government’s

Attempt to Reform and Close

Ca

´rcel Ex-Penitenciarı

´a

(CDP Santiago Sur): ¿Mientras

ma

´s cambian las cosas, ma

´sse

mantienen igual?

Jeffrey Ian Ross

1,2

and Ba

´rbara Barraza Uribe

3

Abstract

Over the past decade, many South and Latin American countries have experienced an increase in

crime. As a response, these states have experimented with a number of crime control methods. One

of the traditional responses has been an overreliance on incarceration. Despite changes in other

aspects of the Chilean bureaucracy, the prison system has lagged behind. This study explores the

reasons why Ca

´rcel Ex-Penitenciarı

´a (CDP Santiago Sur), located in Santiago, Chile, one of the

oldest operating prisons in the country, that houses the highest number of inmates, under

deplorable conditions, still remains open. The article reviews the history of attempts to reform and

close the facility, in the context of attempts to change national prison policy and practices and why

the Penitenciarı

´a still remains operational. It concludes with an examination why attempts to reform

the prison facility have largely failed and why it remains open.

Keywords

Central/South America, c omparative crime/justi ce, institutional correc tions, corrections, Chil e,

Ca

´rcel Ex-Penitenciarı

´a

Criminal justice systems are dynamic. In Latin American, for example, many aspects of the

criminal justice apparatus have undergone significant changes including increased numbers of

police officers hired, an expansion in the number of correctional facilities built, and experimentation

with different kinds of sentencing policies and pr ograms. Some keen observers (e.g.,Grugel &

Riggirozzi, 2012; Sanchez, 2006; Wacquant, 2003, 2004, 2008) have suggested, that in the case

1

School of Criminal Justice, University of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, USA

2

Criminology, Criminal Policy and Police Science, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany

3

Gender and Culture Interdisciplinary Center, School of Social Sciences, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile

Corresponding Author:

Jeffrey Ian Ross, School of Criminal Justice, University of Baltimore, 1420 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.

Email: jross@ubalt.edu

International CriminalJustice Review

2019, Vol. 29(1) 59-89

ª2017 Georgia State University

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DOI: 10.1177/1057567717739086

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of Latin America, reforms in the area of criminal justice h ave been a dominant express ion of

neoliberal changes in those countries governance. In terms of their correctional sys tems, many

countries in this region have also resorted to lengthy prison sentences and the construction of

high-security prisons (e.g., Darke & Karam, 2015; Filho, 2013; Garce´s, 2010, 2014a, 2014b;

Macaulay, 2007; Ross, 2013) as dubious solutions to deal with real and perceived increases in crime

and fear of crime.

It should come as no surprise that jail/prison conditions in South American countries are some of

the worst in the world (Abiven, 2014; Anonymous, 2012b). This includes substandard living con-

ditions, insufficient and inadequate food, high rates of medical illness, failure to separate mentally ill

prisoners from general population inmates,

1

high rates of suicide, significant incidents of prisoner

abuse/violence by correctional officers and other inmates, and lengthy periods of incarceration for

pretrial detainees. Numerous international bodies such as Amnesty International, Human Rights

Watch, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the United Nations (UN) Human

Rights Commission have criticized these facilities for the previously mentioned problems (Mu

¨ller,

2012; Ungar, 2003).

Unfortunately, little in the way of reform has been made in improving conditions inside Latin

American jails and prisons. A number of general reasons explain this state of affairs including

differences in correctional policies and practices, variances in the way governments criminalize

populations, the growth in correctional facility construction, and the international expansion of a

prison industrial complex (Fuentes, 2004).

Changing, reforming, and closing correctional facilities are not an easy task for any state regard-

less of the level and type of government, country, region, and/or political economic status (Ross,

2016). Resources must be appropriated and typically redirected from other important and competing

public/government services. This challenge is not exclusive to Latin American countries.

For example, in 2004 after experiencing a series of embarrassing reports of prisoner abuse at the

hands of American military personnel, the U.S. government vowed to close Abu Ghraib prison

(Rothe, 2013). It took until 2014 for the Iraqi government to finally padlock the facility. On the other

hand, since the election of President Barak Obama (2008), the United States has attempted to close

Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp and transfer the remaining “enemy combatants” to the United

States (Ross, 2006; Ross & Rothe, 2013). Although the number of detainees has been drastically

reduced, the U.S. government has experienced considerable opposition from Congress and the

Senate, and communities where the remaining detainees might be transferred. Thus, the facility

still remains open. Similar scenarios have been played out with closing Rikers Jail in New York City

and the Baltimore City Detention Center (aka Baltimore City Jail).

Efforts to change, if not close, correctional facilities are not a product of the 20th century. The

history of prison reform has existed since the construction of the first correctional facility (Morris,

1966). John Howard, in his book The State of Prisons (1777), for example, argued for changes in the

manner in which England housed individuals convicted of a crime. Most of the analysis of prison

reform, however, has been centered on Anglo-American correctional facilities.

In order to better understand why Latin American jails and prisons have in part continued to have

poor facilities/conditions, and the slow paced nature of correctional reform, it may be useful to

examine, in the form of a case study, a long-standing prison where calls for its reform or closure have

routinely been made, but the government has failed to adequately achieve this objective. One Latin

American correctional fac ility that fits these criter ia is the Ca´rcel Ex-Penitenciarı´a (Cen tro de

Detencio´n Preventivo [CDP] Santiago Sur), hereafter referred to as the Penitenciarı´a. This correc-

tional facility located in Santiago, Chile, is both one of the oldest operating prisons in this country,

region, and the world (completed in 1856) and houses the greatest number of inmates.

2

This article examines the history of this prison with a focus on attempts to reform and close the

facility and why it still remains operational. In particular, this article reviews when, why, and by

60 International Criminal Justice Review 29(1)