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Panama The Penal System
Article 27 of the Constitution declares that the prison system
is based on the principles of security, rehabilitation, and the
protection of society. Provisions have been made to establish
training programs designed to teach skills and trades that will
afford prisoners the opportunity of reentering society as useful
citizens after they complete their sentence. The same article also
prohibits physical, mental, and moral abuse of prisoners. Juvenile
offenders who were sentenced by a court were cared for in a special
system that provided protection and education and attempted to
rehabilitate minors before they came of age. Women were also
segregated in the penal system.
The Department of Corrections was established in 1940 to
administer the country's penal system for the Ministry of Government and Justice. Operation of the prisons had previously been a
direct function of the National Police. The intention of the
government officials who established the Department of Corrections
was to end the inherent abuses in the system, but the new
department was never properly staffed, and police had to be used as
jailers. The same situation continued in the mid-1980s; because of
understaffing in the Department of Corrections, most jails were
staffed by members of the Defense Forces, and the prison system was
still considered an entity of the FDP. Other abuses apparently also
continued. Major complaints expressed about the penal system
concerned overcrowding, poor sanitation facilities, and lack of
adequate medical attention.
The Isla de Coiba has been the site of the Coiba Penal Colony,
Panama's most severe prison, since 1919. Although most of its
prisoners were sentenced by courts to specified terms, sometimes
persons were sent to Coiba while awaiting the results of pretrial
investigation or awaiting sentencing, a violation of judicial
regulations, if, as indicated in the criminal code, Coiba was the
most severe regime in the prison system. The prisoners were housed
in a main camp and in several small camps scattered about the
island, but there was no indication that pretrial detainees were
segregated from prisoners serving sentences. In the main camp,
there were some facilities for rehabilitation training and a small
school; however, many of the inmates had little or no access to
those facilities because they lived some distance from the main
camp. Work was required of all prisoners including those awaiting
trial or awaiting sentencing. Labor was unremunerated for the
majority of prisoners, most of whom were engaged in farming and
animal husbandry in areas that they or former prisoners had cleared
of jungle growth. Some mechanics and other skilled craftsmen
received small wages for their labor.
Another major prison, the Model Jail (Cárcel Modelo) in Panama
City was built in 1920; over the years, however, it acquired a
reputation that belied its name. Its biggest problem, one not
unique to the Model Jail or to Panama, was overcrowding. Cells
intended to house three inmates were frequently found to have as
many as fifteen; this severe overcrowding may have accounted for
the large number of pretrial detainees that were sent to Coiba.
First offenders confined to the Model Jail were not always
segregated from hardened criminals, a pattern that prevailed
throughout most of the prison system. Prisoners awaiting trial were
often confined for extended periods before their cases appeared on
a court docket, and there were complaints that rights to habeas
corpus had been violated by holding some offenders incommunicado.
There was a jail in each provincial capital. The same
complaints of overcrowding and abuse of rights were reported from
the outlying provinces.
In contrast to the conditions under which male prisoners served
sentences and awaited trial, women received much better care. The
Women's Rehabilitation Center (Centro Feminino de Rehabilitación)
in Panama City appeared to be an ideal prison. The center was under
the supervision of the Department of Corrections, as were all
prisons in Panama, but it was operated by nuns who had established
a reputation for discipline tempered by humaneness and decency. Few
complaints were reported from prisoners at the women's center. When
first arrested, however, women were sometimes held overnight or for
several nights at the Model Jail where, even though segregated,
women experienced conditions that differed little from those
described for men.
Data as of December 1987
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