The Córdoba Bar Association sent a message to its members, particularly to criminal lawyers who visit prison establishments in the province. The president of the professional entity Eduardo Bittar announced that the group’s claims were responded to with Resolution 20 of the Provincial Penitentiary Service (SPC).
The measure enables a series of benefits that are already in force. Together with Bittar, criminal lawyer Romina Zurchmitten listed the advantages that are already in force for each of the defenders’ visits to interview their clients who are detained.
The first of them is that all lawyers can enter prisons throughout the province with a computer type notebook, with the exception that they must carry it in their hands, without covers, without bags or briefcases. This makes the task easier, since until now access to devices with which you could take notes or help you during the interview was not allowed. It must be clarified that cell phones, as is known, remain restricted.
The announcements were made by Bittar and Zurchmitten together with criminal lawyers Ariel Mohammad Navarro, José D’Antona, Leandro Ortiz Morán, Esteban Yangüez Papagenadio, Joaquín Ferreyra Pizarro and Vanessa Escalante Paz.
The second measure stated by Zurchmitten has to do with the extension of the hours, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., to request reports (inquiries) regarding people who have been detained during that day. This, in addition to avoiding waiting until the next day, serves to reassure family members and other people who are uncertain about the whereabouts of those deprived of their liberty on public roads.
The third measure announced by the Union Action Body in Criminal Matters is that the dissemination, within the scope of the SPC and its agents, of the scope of article 17 of law 5805 is achieved. This regulation has to do with the respect they deserve receive lawyers from the prison guards, which must be “equaled to that of a magistrate.” The mere knowledge of this prevents some of the mistreatment that lawyers have been suffering in prisons.
Another advantage that is beginning to be applied in the scope of the SPC for lawyers is that they can send an email to the penitentiary establishment the day before their visit, as a way for the prison guards to make arrangements so that the defendant is available to the time your lawyer arrives. With this, the aim is to avoid delays such as those that have occurred until now, with prisoners who were on duty or who, once their defender arrived, were only going to be sought for the interview. It is known that an internal transfer in a prison requires the opening of numerous “doors” with all security measures. If this is true, professional homework saves time on shorter visits.
Finally, Zurchmitten also pointed out that now the certification of the signatures of the detainees (by powers of attorney or authorization or other writing that their lawyer presents to them) can be done with the deputy head of Security of each module of the establishment. Previously, this procedure had to be done before a judicial official who was the only one who could attest to that act. Now, decentralized, this act will be done in a place close to the interview, with greater speed.
On the other hand, it was learned that lawyers will have a “storage place” in prisons, where there will be lockers or closed lockers to leave cell phones, purses or wallets, among other things.
