On Tuesday, July 2, starting at 9 a.m., the results of the first survey on people deprived of liberty in the area of the Penitentiary and Social Rehabilitation Service of Chaco will be presented. It will be at the Guido Miranda cultural complex, located at Colón 164, in Resistencia. The presentation will feature the participation of the person responsible for the research, the director of the Master of Criminology at the National University of the Litoral, Máximo Sozzo.
The work was a joint effort between the National University of the Litoral and the Committee for the Prevention of Torture of the Province of Chaco. It began in November 2022 and ended in May 2023. It was carried out entirely by a team made up of workers and commissioners from the provincial Committee for the Prevention of Torture.
The investigation was directed and co-directed by Maximo Sozzo and Kevin Nielsen, respectively. The work team is completed by Araceli Ortigoza Peña, Ariela Alvarez, Bashé Charole, Cintia Abigail Miño, Dario Edgardo Gomez, Diego Gamboa, Esteban Pereyra, Francisco Sincovich, Gaston Brem, Isabella Paccio, Maria Jose Bogado, Mariana Mercado, Martin Pelozo, Matias Rolon, Micaela Soria, Natalia Ruidiaz, Roberto Sotelo, Selva Nazaruka and Silvina Canteros.
The study was carried out by applying 264 questionnaires to a representative sample of all people deprived of liberty in the nine prison units of Chaco, covering 21.2% of the prison population. Each questionnaire included 363 questions that addressed various aspects of prison life and people’s trajectories with the penal system.
A representative sample of the entire prison population in the Province of Chaco was designed, taking into account the existing population in each penitentiary unit, as well as in each of its pavilions or sectors, at the time of starting the field work.
The interviews were conducted face to face in prisons in Chaco, ensuring conditions of privacy and confidentiality. The effective collaboration of the Penitentiary Service of the Province of Chaco was achieved, with no inconvenience being recorded during the field work.
Respondents were randomly selected in each pavilion/sector of each Chaco prison, respecting the quotas set for each space according to the size of the prison population. The predisposition of people deprived of their liberty to be part of the study was very marked.
The rigorous field work allowed us to collect crucial data that provides a comprehensive vision of the living conditions and challenges faced by people deprived of liberty in the province.
This study not only constitutes an academic advance, but also seeks to generate a positive impact on the formulation of public policies aimed at improving living conditions in prisons and promoting the human rights of people deprived of liberty.
