Breaking the Chains: How Argentina's Federal Prison Service Is Rewriting the Rules of Modern Corrections
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As organised crime networks evolve and correctional systems worldwide grapple with escalating complexity, Argentina's Federal Prison Service stands at a pivotal crossroads. With hundreds of facilities under its jurisdiction and responsibility for some of the nation's most challenging federal cases, the SPF is implementing a comprehensive reform agenda that positions rehabilitation alongside security as core institutional priorities.
The recent integration of the SPF into the Ministry of National Security signals more than administrative restructuring, it represents a fundamental shift in how Argentina conceptualises the role of corrections within its broader public safety architecture. Against a backdrop of rising drug trafficking activity and increasingly sophisticated criminal organisations, the service is pioneering evidence-based approaches that balance operational security with progressive interventions designed to reduce reoffending and support successful reintegration.
In an exclusive interview, SPF leadership discusses the organisation's strategic vision, the challenges of managing a diverse and complex custodial population, and how international collaboration is shaping the future of corrections in Argentina. From educational programming and mental health initiatives to workforce development and facility modernisation, the conversation reveals an institution undergoing profound transformation, one that seeks to redefine what effective, humane, and forward-thinking corrections looks like in the 21st century.
Could you share an overview of the Argentine correctional system and highlight the main priorities currently guiding the Federal Prison Service?
Argentina is, according to our National Constitution, a federal representative republic. In this regard, the Provinces retain certain original competences, with justice administration and security serving as examples. Consequently, our Provinces may choose to sign agreements with the Federal Government to administer prisons within their territory under federal jurisdiction—that is, administered by the Federal Prison Service (SPF for its Spanish acronym)—either exclusively for federal offences or for all types of criminal offences (felony/misdemeanour), or they may administer their own prisons with their own rules within the national framework—established by Law 24.660 and the Constitution, including international standards.
Today, Argentina has 342 prisons of different categories, 31 of which belong to the SPF. Within those establishments, 120,700 inmates are housed (according to the 2024 edition of the National Statistics System on Penal Execution -SNEEP-), which amounts to an incarceration rate of 284 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Due to the increased activity of organized crime in our region and country, mainly through drug trafficking, Argentina has had to face some much-needed changes in our national security policy. This has resulted, among other things, in legal reforms currently being discussed in Congress, but also notably in the SPF being transferred from the Ministry of Justice to the Ministry of National Security. For this reason, the SPF is currently an integrated part of the national security policy, with renewed and increased coordination with federal law enforcement agencies.
This change responded not only to the need for greater security in prisons—since some leaders of criminal organizations could still run their operations from their cells—but also to a holistic approach to security, in which every part of the criminal justice system must work together, collaborating to obtain better results. Prisons, therefore, become a vital part of society by contributing to national security and ensuring better possibilities for those who undergo liberty deprivation sentences.
However, in order to fulfil our role in the criminal justice system, several changes within our organization had to be made. After a 4-year-long intervention, the SPF was left with its capacities extremely reduced (for example, our intelligence was dismantled; our professionals' reports could not evaluate subjective aspects for treatment design; international relations were left aside; and even our corruption prevention policy was interrupted), while having to face a new kind of inmate with greater risks and several needs that the administration had to manage.
This change in the composition of our prison population responded mainly to the new position of organized crime in our country, where small organizations assume control of local communities—replacing the State—promising attractive profits in short periods to a segment of society that simply could not attain them otherwise, while providing access to drugs and ultimately creating a new image of what is socially desirable, a culture of its own, resulting in the emergence of new leaders who based their operations on family bonds, ensuring high levels of loyalty.
Thus, two distinct profiles emerge: the leaders/managers who lead and/or exert coordination roles, and the rest of the organization's members, who execute their commands but hold no control over the operations. Given our federal nature, it has become clear that the SPF should manage those leaders, generally imprisoned for federal offences, and all other inmates that the Provinces could not manage properly (due to lack of adequate programs and/or security standards). After an initial diagnosis of our institution, our current authorities designed the Strategic Plan to be executed during the period 2024-2028. The Plan works on 5 pillars:
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Strengthening the career development and motivation of our human capital;
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Improving safety, security infrastructure, technology, and equipment;
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Implementing best strategies and practices to reduce reoffending;
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Promoting public integrity policies, transparency, and accountability;
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Promoting regulations modernization and improvement of our institutional communications.
All current policies must align with one (or more) of these pillars, which not only ensures that our efforts are directed toward relevant measures but also promotes accountability, as all our authorities' performance will ultimately be evaluated by their compliance with the lines of action required from their areas/establishments.
What programs or policies are in place to promote education, professional skills, mental health, and overall wellbeing for people in custody?
The SPF’s primary goal is to reduce reoffending, in order to contribute to national security, and therefore, need/ risk management, treatment programs, and a comprehensive intervention of its prison population is an imperative. Under our General Direction of Correctional Regime, all programs are coordinated for better results. As soon as an inmate arrives in custody, they undergo an evaluation (System of Initial Classification on Risks and the System of Categorization), which helps us determine to which establishment they should go, under what regime (closed, intermediate, open), under what category of security (from A to E, bring A the highest). Once they are in the selected establishment, our professionals evaluate their risk and needs, their protective and risk factors and a possible reoffending forecast, all of which is done following structured professional judgement techniques, and registered in our System of Criminological Records, which allows us to better measure risks and needs and design individual interventions.
All inmates are assigned a personalized intervention plan, according to their evaluations’ findings, and their advancement is measured every 3 months, by the Correctional Council of the establishment where they serve their sentence. This Council is integrated by professionals from every area (security, labour, education, criminology, healthcare and social assistance). Remand prisoners may participate in these activities voluntarily if the court in charge of their case approves their application.
In line with our Strategic Plan, all of these interventions are under examination, for better results, as it was shown that not all inmates could access the programs they needed, and even if they could, these were not subject of policy evaluations, so their efficacy was not always guaranteed. Also, as the SPF has units all across the country, it was noted that not all Councils delivered the programs the same way, and even some regulations were overlooked. New guidelines are being produced by the National Direction, following that analysis, best practices and coordination with judges from all jurisdictions.
Some relevant changes include the “Manos a la Obra” Program (“Let’s get to work” Program), by which all inmates must participate in maintenance related activities to improve living conditions and acquire habits of order and different vocational activities are promoted –those that teach a trade or craft, and may become a future source of employment-. Only these vocational activities receive an incentive, and the time of both activities is controlled to ensure participation in all relevant treatment areas.
In education, the SPF works with each Province, so that the education available within its prisons matches that available to the communities. We are currently signing covenants with different national universities in order to increase the superior education courses available for our prison population, as primary and secondary education are compulsory in Argentina and arrangements for their availability are already in place.
Social Assistance professionals work with the inmates to help them decide what relations are better for them, foster those that work as protective factors, identify what social dynamics could have contributed to criminal behaviour, and also ensure some basic needs, such as documentation, transportation and/ or housing needs. The social workers, psychologists and lawyers that work in this area are the nexus between the prison administration, community resources, NGOs and public post-release offices, since Prison and Probation Services are not integrated in our country.
Our healthcare system requires a particular analysis. Argentina has faced in the last 20 years a profound crisis in its healthcare system, due to several structural causes among which we may find: lack of sufficient healthcare professionals, poor salaries, the complexities of having public/ private and mixed health insurances and a large population without coverage, and a lack of general investment. Prisons, of course are no exception. However, the SPF recognizes these challenges and has undertaken several measures to ensure healthcare in its establishments: we have admitted naturalized foreigners to become part of our healthcare team, we are undergoing a new recruitment campaign for healthcare professionals, and we have signed agreements with universities to allow internships in our prisons. SPF is also working on a digitalized clinical record and a Primary Health-care Centre in Ezeiza, Buenos Aires, where some of our biggest establishments are located, where emergencies are to be referred, to complement our Prison Hospitals.
For this year, management’s focus will be set in the revision and renewal of our treatment programs, to better adapt them to the new profiles observed in the prison population and the new high-standard role of the SPF.
How does the Federal Prison Service support reintegration and continuity of care for individuals returning to society after release?
In spite of great efforts being made by our institution to reduce reoffending and promote desistance, it is an undeniable reality that those goals cannot be attained solely by prison administrations. Society as a whole, and all public systems must work alongside the persons in conflict with the law, and even international cooperation is needed. For this reason, is that we believe that Probation Services should be integrated to our Prison Service, and become a state policy.
Until that, the SPF’s professionals –particularly those who work in social assistance- coordinate their efforts with community assets and the inmates’ families and friends to help them in their desistance process, even when not in custody. Our programs include long-term goals and are articulated with different actors, to promote continuity.
For example, companies may employ inmates after release if they had a good performance in their vocational workshop, drug-addiction programs are articulated with community resources, and intermediate housing arrangements may be fixed with NGOs and similar actors. All of these are examples of different requirements that the Preparatory Program for Freedom may include. This program is designed between SPF’s professionals and the inmate a year in advance of their release, if they had not been eligible for early releases. If they have, the conditions for their concession must include working and living arrangements, and their feasibility has to be endorsed by our professionals.
We also strive to have our vocational and educational programs certified by external entities, so that inmates may use them as references in the community. Along the past 2 years we have worked in aligning all our professionals’ work, so as to ensure that all inmates may access early releases in equal conditions and only when it is beneficial for their treatment and safe for society. This will not only result in lesser incidents, but, in time, also will lead to a better perception of the community of those who return to it after liberty deprivation and, hence, better results.
Are there any recent reforms, innovations, or good practices that you believe are particularly impactful within Argentina’s correctional system?
Many advancements have been made in the last 2 years, with SPF leading those changes. As expressed earlier, society’s perceptions of security had reached critical lows, and prisons played an important role in that. For example, the city of Rosario in the Province of Santa Fe was completely sieged by criminal organizations, notably “Los Monos”, and its inhabitants could not walk freely without fear of execution, as some of these organizations have acquired terror techniques to discourage authorities from enforcing law, and therefore, protect their own operations.
Today, Rosario is being recovered and the homicide rate of the city has experienced reductions of around 70% in critical areas. All of which is a result of the “Plan Bandera” (“Flag Plan”), that comprises the deployment of the 5 federal security forces and the control of prisons –mainly unauthorized contacts with the outside world-. SPF has become central to the Plan Bandera with the implementation of our Integrated Management System for High Risk Prisoners (SIGPPLAR), by which all organized crime leaders are held under restrictive conditions, limiting their contact with the outside world, while still ensuring the delivery of treatment programs.
This new role of SPF required profound changes in its regulations, resulting in the new Statute of the Federal Prison Service. The Statute establishes that SPF’s mission comprises the custody of prisoners under federal jurisdiction, the delivery of treatment programs and activities to reduce reoffending and, in that way, contribute with the national security system. The Statute also includes the organization’s core values, its principles, a new structure that will allow it to accomplish its mission following up-to-date practices, higher training standards and the inclusion of the corruption prevention policy.
In addition, our criminological interventions are now better informed and measured through the implementation of the System of Criminological Records, that provides relevant and timely information for decision-making.
Important changes are also being made in how prison architecture is designed. Traditionally, political authorities announced the construction of prison establishments as a part of hard-line policies on crime, leaving the projects unfinished due to lack of resources or lack of interest in investing in correctional facilities. This meant that when the construction was finally finished, most of the times what was handed to the prison administration wasn’t what it needed. The SPF is convinced that a good prison design must have participation of prison officers, and must be a product of an integral analysis of the prison population’s composition, risks and needs. This has resulted in the design of a prison requirements plan, which considers the size and composition of the prison population that will live in it, the staff necessary to run it, the movements and key processes that will take place in it, and all external actors that will interact with it, so that any future construction is made to match the reality of the system. This will ultimately mean that restrictions will only be applied when necessary, all prison activities shall have a designated area, movements will be more efficient and overall security will be improved.
Regarding staff, we have identified several structural difficulties in its management, that resulted in professional illness/ stress, high turnover rates, and inefficient distribution, mainly because staff management wasn’t conceived as a central policy that had to respond to institutional needs. To solve that, SPF is working in an integral Position Description Directory, which will descript the requirements of education, experience and skills of every position, considering its associated risks, and based on its expected outputs and an integrated view of the institutional needs, which will ensure a better recruitment, distribution and design of career paths.
What value does ICPA membership bring to your institution, and how does international collaboration support your work?
Cooperation, both international and between provinces, has become of paramount importance, and Argentina is today a part of several cooperation agencies/ forums. Locally, the Provinces set their priorities and agenda in the Federal Prison Council, and SPF has gained a leading role, mainly through its training programs. Internationally, the SPF is an active member of RED COPEN (Prison Cooperation Net) and RAP (Prison Academies Net) of the European Union’s Program “El Paccto”, the Specialized Task Force on Prisons of MERCOSUR, the Brasilia Pact and ICPA. This helps us improve all our key policies, through information and best practices sharing.
Particularly, ICPA is a strategic ally to our institution, since its platform allows us to assess best practices and also create lasting bonds with different institutions. It also helps us showcase our staff’s valuable work and accomplishments, which helps us boost their motivation. All in all, being a member of this community helps us become a better version of ourselves.
Cooperation has become one of the pillars of this administration, in the understanding that no agency can, by itself, fulfil its mission. For that reason, in every international forum that SPF participates, we strive to create and consolidate networks to exchange knowledge and information, share best practices, and promote innovation in the prison field.