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Paraguay The Prison System
In 1988 the operation of prisons was under the General
Directorate of Penal Institutions, controlled by the Ministry of
Justice and Labor. According to Article 65 of the Constitution,
penal institutions are required to be healthful and clean and to be
dedicated to rehabilitating offenders. Economic constraints made
conditions in prisons austere, however, and overcrowding was a
serious problem. A report by an independent bar association in the
early 1980s criticized the prison system for failing to provide
treatment for convicts.
The National Penitentiary in Asunción was the country's
principal correctional institution. Observers believed that the
total population of the institution averaged about 2,000, including
political prisoners. Another prison for adult males was the Tacumbu
Penitentiary located in Villa Hayes, near Asunción.
Women and juveniles were held in separate institutions. Females
were incarcerated in the Women's Correctional Institute under the
supervision of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. The institution
offered courses in domestic science. A correctional institute for
minors was located in Emboscada, which was also near the capital.
It stressed rehabilitating inmates and providing them with skills
that would help them secure employment when their sentences were
completed.
In addition to the penal institutions in the Central Department,
each of the other departments maintained a prison or jail in its
capital. Many smaller communities did not have adequate facilities
even for temporary incarceration, however. A suspect receiving a
sentence of more than one year usually was transferred to a
national penitentiary.
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As of late 1988, no definitive studies that deal comprehensively
with national security matters in contemporary Paraguay had been
published. A general treatment of modern Paraguayan political life,
touching on the military and its place in the national life, can be
found in two works by Paul H. Lewis: Paraguay Under
Stroessner and Socialism, Liberalism, and Dictatorship in
Paraguay. The most complete coverage of the history and
development of the armed forces is contained in the section,
"Paraguay," in Adrian J. English's Armed Forces of Latin
America. For developments since 1980, the reader must search
through issues of the Latin American Weekly Report (London),
the Latin America Report prepared by the Joint Publications
Research Service, and the Daily Report: Latin America put
out by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service. Current order-of-
battle data are available in the International Institute of
Strategic Studies' excellent annual, The Military Balance.
The best overview of conditions of public order is contained in the
section on Paraguay in Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices, a report submitted annually by the United States
Department of State to the United States Congress. Two reports by
the Americas Watch Committee--Paraguay: Latin America's Oldest
Dictatorship Under Pressure and Rule by Fear: Paraguay After
Thirty Years Under Stroessner--also provide data on the
treatment of political and security offenses under the criminal
justice system as well as the government's observance of human
rights. (For further information and complete citations, see
Data as of December 1988
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