For years, some of Colombia’s most prominent convicts and defendants—including politicians, lawyers and former officials—served their sentences not in ordinary prisons, but in military and police barracks, where reports described lax oversight, unauthorized visits, secret outings and even a luxury car parked inside one facility. Critics dubbed these comfortable arrangements “resort jails.”
That practice appears to be ending. Since early August, President Abelardo De La Espriella has ordered Colombia’s prison authority, known as Inpec, to move roughly a dozen high-profile detainees out of these barracks and into standard penitentiaries. The president has argued that white-collar offenders deserve no special treatment, a stance that contrasts sharply with the harsh conditions endured by most of the more than 100,000 people incarcerated in the country. Colombia’s human rights ombudswoman, Iris Marín, has backed the crackdown, insisting that no one is above the law.
Among those relocated are Daneidy Barrera Rojas, known as “Epa Colombia,” convicted of vandalism during 2019 protests; former House Speaker Andrés Calle, tied to a corruption scandal involving disaster-relief funds; a sitting mayor; a lawyer convicted in a bribery case; a former intelligence chief convicted of persecuting a journalist; a newly elected congressman; and two former provincial governors accused of using their special housing to keep running local politics from behind bars.
Read the full investigation at eltiempo.com.
Source: Se acaba la era de ‘cárceles resort’ para procesados de cuello blanco (eltiempo.com).
Image: Steve Snodgrass, BY 2.0 (via Openverse).