Santo Domingo.-The “La Victoria” prison, for decades a symbol of overcrowding and inhumane conditions in the Dominican penitentiary system, stopped receiving new inmates since yesterday, which constitutes its technical closure and the beginning of the process of gradual transfer of the people deprived of liberty who still remain there.
The decision, announced last Tuesday and carried out yesterday, marks the end of an era that accumulated national and international complaints due to the level of deterioration, violence, unhealthiness and overcrowding of the prison.
However, the closure of La Victoria does not mean that the country has resolved the structural crisis of its prison system, a problem that continues to affect hundreds of inmates and limits the courts’ ability to act.
According to statistics from the General Directorate of Penitentiary and Correctional Services (DGSPC), Dominican prisons are at the limit of their capacity, with a population that far exceeds the number of inmates for which they were designed.
This overpopulation generates extreme overcrowding and precarious human conditions for prisoners, with deficiencies in health services, hygiene, food and access to decent spaces.
The situation is so critical that, on numerous occasions, judges have not been able to execute the coercive measures they order, due to the lack of space in prisons. In the so-called Cobra case, for example, the defendants were to be transferred to the Najayo prison, but overcrowding forced their relocation to the new “Las Parras” prison facility.
From now on, no judge will be able to order new admissions to that prison, which forces the defendants to be redirected to other centers, especially the Las Parras Correctional and Rehabilitation Center (CCR), in the Guerra municipality.
Las Parras is designed to receive up to 8,000 prisoners, but currently it only houses about 600 inmates, plus the defendants in the Cobra case, who are accused of having defrauded the State through the National Health Insurance (SeNaSa).
Upon arrival, prisoners receive a personal hygiene kit, bedding, basic clothing and items for daily use.
Preventive detention
— Overpopulation
The excessive and abusive use of preventive detention by the courts keeps the Dominican penitentiary system collapsed, with correctional centers that exceed 400% overcrowding.
Las Parras, with a different beginning than La Victoria
Closing. Although the installed capacity of Las Parras represents an opportunity to decongest the system, penitentiary specialists warn that the crisis will not be resolved solely by transferring inmates, since the country faces structural problems such as the excessive use of preventive detention, lack of rehabilitation programs, procedural delays, staff shortages, deteriorated infrastructure and centers that operate above their limit.
“As of today, the closure of La Victoria is definitive: only inmates can leave, they cannot enter,” said Roberto Santana, who is in charge of leading the prison transformation process.
