The Office of the Attorney General discovered alarming cases of corruption in the so-called ‘La Modelo’ and ‘La Picota’ prisons in Bogotá, and other penitentiary centers in the country. Inmates and their relatives paid Inpec officials for benefits in the cells. Moreover, there were detected omissions in the verification of home detentions in exchange for bribes.

The crisis of the penitentiary and prison system cannot wait, it is a failure of the criminal policy” stated Attorney General Néstor Humberto Martínez Neira.

The penitentiary and prison system of Colombia faces one of the biggest crisis due to corruption, as evidenced by the operation (Operacion Celdas) in which the Office of the Attorney General in a joint work with the Ministry of Justice and Inpec, dismantled networks formed by Inpec officers and prison directors who would be involved in bribes to favor inmates.

The two heads of the main prisons in the country, La Modelo and La Picota, are precisely linked to corruption offenses.