Abstract
This paper presents some critical considerations regarding the Latin American and Colombian penitentiary systems based on the review of the meaning and evolution of the principles of bioethics, and the exploration of contractual theories raised by Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu and Rousseau. For this purpose, a retrospective documentary investigation was carried out within a ten-year observation span (2010/2020). The result highlights the setback of a Latin American criminal policy incapable of reducing crime rates, which can be associated to factors of poverty, marginality, inequality and social exclusion; while the States exploit inmates under an absurd and unattainable re-socializing treatment. With this starting point, attention is drawn to the increasing disintegration and deterioration of the inmate population in Colombia, whose prison system reflects all these characteristics that violate the principle of respect for human life and dignity, with an overcrowding rate that exceeded 365 percent in 2018 in some of the main detention centers. However, the new model of Transitional Justice, which favors truth and reparation over custodial sentences, could be considered, based on the principles of Bioethics, as a systemic alternative solution for the regional prison crisis.
Presenters
Melba-Luz Calle-MezaProfesora, Facultad de Derecho, Universidad Nueva Granada, Cundinamarca, Colombia
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Civic, Political, and Community Studies
KEYWORDS
PRINCIPLES OF BIOETHICS, PRISON SYSTEM, TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE, HUMAN RIGHTS, COLOMBIA
