To the surprise of no one, the Minister of Justice recently announced that the construction of the prison to beat all prisons, the Tico version of The Bukele model, is already behind schedule. Construction began late last year and the original completion date was slated for July. When the month of July arrived, it was announced that September will now be the month that the iron gates will swing open and there will be space available for 5,000 of the most despicable convicted criminals in Costa Rica.
The mindset behind the new prison seems to be, “If you build it, they will be convicted and fill all of the cells”. They being the gang leaders, cartel soldiers, sicarios (hitmen), and assorted other bad guys for whom violence is the answer and disputes are settled by firing high powered automatic weapons indiscriminately at human targets with any bystanders hit just collateral damage.
We can all agree that if a prison like this is necessary here, these are the destructive types for whom it will be built. The new promise is that not only will they be locked up, but their communication will be limited, and all contacts monitored. In the present La Reforma prison, inmates have easy access to the outside world, and gang and cartel leaders still call the shots from behind bars.
Once the prison is complete and ready for use in September (or later), the easy part will have been accomplished. The hard part? Can you arrest those responsible for the increased violence in our streets? Can you detain them without a judge letting them free on bail, or worse on some legal technicality? Can you get the convictions and sentences that fit the crimes?
The most secure prison in the world won’t matter if light sentences and a revolving door that allows repeat offenders to minimal time remains the norm. Anyone who has been to court here knows the legal system seems to have more concern for the rights of defendants than of the victims.
We are now in year five of the Rodrigo Chaves era. The last three years saw the highest number of murders in Tico history. For all the tough talk and posturing of Chaves and his allusions to the jaguar, crime has gotten worse. There is plenty of blame to go around.
Costa Rica is not alone. The world seems to have become an angrier and more unstable place post-Pandemic. One exception of course, is El Salvador. Will a smaller copy of their Supermax prison work for Costa Rica? The first year or two after the new jail’s debut should give us a good idea.
In the meantime, while the new place of confinement awaits, we have been informed that in the new prison, all inmates will be required to wear orange uniforms. These will be made by inmates in the women’s prison. This piece of information was released at the same time as the news that construction was behind schedule.
So we wait to see if this addition of prison cells will stop the ongoing crime wave. Time will tell, but hey– at least we know that if anyone manages to escape the new Max prison, they will be easily identified by their colors.
