Paraguay: country with the most unconvicted inmates in South America

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Ministry of Justice on Monday released a quantitative report on the prison population throughout the country in 2021. The report revealed that Paraguay is again the country with the most prisoners without a sentence in South America.

“Pre-trial detainees represent over 70% of the entire prison population. This places Paraguay first among South American countries with the highest number of such detainees in its prison population,” the Ministry of Justice stated in its report.

In addition, the report indicated that the prison population “gradually and steadily” increased throughout the year, starting with 13,829 inmates, but ending the year with 15,090, including both pre-trial and convicted prisoners.

The highest number was reached on December 15, with 15,216 prisoners.

In percentages during the whole of 2021, an average of 94.9% of the prison population was male, while female prisoners accounted for only 5.09%.

In relation to the average rate of men who have been convicted and those in pre-trial detention, 71.37% of male inmates have not yet been convicted, while the remaining 28.63% have.

In the case of women, there is a slight difference, as those imprisoned without a sentence represent almost 40% and the convicted account for 60.10% of the prison population.

The report also shows that the population of detained women had a negative cumulative percentage variation of -3.76%, i.e., it decreased, while the population of convicted women increased by 11.9% throughout 2021.

Deputy Minister of Justice Rubén Maciel said that these numbers “show that judges impose pre-trial detention for women to a lesser extent or that they grant them alternative measures to imprisonment.”

DISTRIBUTION OF THE PRISON POPULATION

Of the 18 penitentiary facilities authorized at the national level, 15 are under a closed regime and 3 are semi-open.

Eight are exclusively for men, 4 for women and 6 are mixed prisons, in which a special wing is set aside for women. In addition, 4 are exclusively for inmates with final and enforceable sentences and the others are available for both pre-trial detainees and convicted prisoners.

Moreover, of the 18 penitentiaries, 11 have occupancy rates over 120%, “which implies critical overcrowding,” according to the Ministry of Justice. Penitentiaries exclusively for women are “under-occupied,” given that their occupancy rate is only 76%.

The penitentiary facility with the largest population in 2021 was Tacumbú, with 2,156; followed by the Regional Penitentiary of Coronel Oviedo, with 1,580; Misiones, with 1,489; Encarnación, with 1,408; “Padre Antonio de La Vega” in Emboscada, with 1,404; and the former prison of Emboscada, with 1,354.

The report also noted that the first 5 mentioned above house more than half of the average prison population.

By the second semester of 2021, Encarnación and Coronel Oviedo housed 87% or more of the prison population. However, Encarnación received the most pre-trial detainees, making it a pre-trial facility, the Ministry noted, adding that Tacumbú is the facility with the least number of pre-trial detainees.

MORE VULNERABLE PEOPLE

Regarding prisoners with greater vulnerability, foreigners account for 40%, 29% are older adults, in addition to indigenous people, people with physical or psychosocial disabilities, mothers with children and LGTBIQ+ people, amount to an average of 1,247.

In addition, throughout 2021, 40 deaths were recorded within the prison system, of which 10 failed to specify the reasons, 9 died from hypovolemic shock, 9 had a sudden death, and 1 died due to Covid-19 complications.

On the other hand, last year there were 43 hunger strikes by prisoners, who mostly asked for their freedom, transfer to another penitentiary or demanded celerity in their judicial process or conditional release.

ISSUES IN ACCESSING INFORMATION

While presenting the report, Deputy Minister of Justice Rubén Maciel said that there are still problems in accessing “certain information” due to the lack of a “standard, systemized and easy to consult” data registration system.

The official said that the main challenge in updating figures is that the data are not centralized.

“Since the loading system is not standardized, it is difficult to access data. Starting with how crimes are registered. Unfortunately, we were affected by the pandemic which blocked our planned process of updating the system,” Maciel said, in reference to the Information System of Persons Deprived of Liberty in Paraguay.

The prison population in the country is made up of adult men and women deprived of their liberty, serving a precautionary measure of pre-trial detention or a penalty or security measure that involves deprivation of liberty, therefore, the report does not include persons deprived of liberty in police or military facilities, nor the figures of adolescents in violation of the criminal law in correctional facilities.

The quantitative report on Paraguay’s penitentiary system was prepared by the Observatory of Criminal Policy, under the Ministry of Justice’s Vice-Ministry of Criminal Policy.