Cárceles concesionadas en Chile: evidencia empírica y perspectivas futuras a 10 años de su creación

Abstract

This article analyzes the system of prison concessions in Chile 10 years after its creation in order to contribute to the public discussion regarding the future of this area of prison policies. To this end, secondary data are used from a variety of sources, including the Recidivism Study (Paz Ciudadana) and the First Survey of Prison Life. Our findings suggest that (i) there is little empirical evidence regarding the operation of private prisons, (ii) these facilities would offer better infrastructure and habitability conditions for some indicators, (iii) privately-operated prisons would exhibit more deficient indicators than their public counterparts in access to health services, internal relations / officials, mistreatment of inmates and access to rehabilitative programs. Despite of the non-conclusive evidence presented in this study, our analysis suggests that there are several aspects of the functioning and performance of the franchised establishments that should be reviewed, since this system promised to offer "better social reintegration" than the traditional, public one. After a decade it seems that this promise remains unfulfilled. Finally, some points are proposed to feed the discussion about the role of jails currently under concession.