The Costa Rican penitentiary system: punitive political decisions and the paradox of a substitutive model to prison abuse

Abstract

This paper presents a critical analysis of the punitive approach adopted by Costa Rica in the last decades. Using data of the impact that this has had on the prison system, the authors reflect on some legal reforms that show that, rather than have created comprehensive policies to address deep social problems such as gender violence or drug trafficking, they have been used as a symbolic resource of the tough on crime policies. Lastly, they offer a different view of the possibility to continue to incorporate punitive responses other than imprisonment in the country given the results that these seem to demonstrate in terms of recidivism.