VENEZUELA-JUSTICE: Tough Task for 24-Year-Old Prison Director

By Estrella Gutiérrez Reprint | | Print |

Estrella Gutierrez

CARACAS, Mar 13 1997 (IPS) - Monica Fernandez smiles when she says the most commonly asked question put to her is “What’s a girl like you doing in a job like this?”

The 24-years-old Fernandez, appointed Venezuela’s Director of Prisons in December, knows exactly why she is in the post: to clean up the current appalling conditions in Venezuela’s pententiary system. She is the focal point of a move by Justice Minister Henrique Meier to undo the web of corruption in the prison system, one of the worst blotches on the country’s human rights record.

“The prisons in Venezuala represent the most negative image of the country,” she told IPS in an early-morning interview in her office. Dressed in a smart business set, with accessaries to match, Fernandez did not believe her age or being a woman was any hurdle to overcome for her to do her job.

“I don’t think I have to renounce who I am, nor how I dress, she said. But she is under no illusions that she faces a difficult task.

“What has built up over 30 years cannot be resolved at one stroke, but things can be improved and will be changed,” she said and already she has begun insituting her “master plan” to address activity within prison walls as well as personnel issues – the “two basic overlapping problems.”

Venezuela has a total of roughly 25,600 prisoners, only 6,600 of whom have been convicted and sentenced.

The country suffers under an “inefficient” and “antiquated” judicial system in which criminal cases typically drag on for years, and bail or provisional liberty pending trial are generally denied, according to a report issued Thursday by Human Rights Watch/Americas – a prominent U.S.-based rights watchdog.

The total number of inmates is double the capacity of the country’s 33 prisons, in which overcrowding has reached crisis levels. Violence is so common that only the largest riots or deaths of groups of prisoners receive attention. Close to 240 inmates were killed in 1995, and 181 died in 1996 – a year when nearly 2,700 machetes, knives and other blades and 638 firearms were confiscated from inmates.

The image of 25 young male prisoners burnt to death in a cell of a Caracas prison last year shocked the world.

Under Fernandez, the year began on a higher note with the closing of the notorious Catia penitentiary in Caracas, a symbol of horror in Venezuala. Work on demolishing the building begins next week and the prison area will be incorporated into nearby parkland.

Fernandez’ formula for change includes more modern management, at times parallel but removed from the Ministry’s bureaucracy, a policy of incentives within and outside the prisons and personalised requirements for each functionary. To accomplish this she often puts in an 18-hour work day – seven days a week for herself – while her monthly salary is just 445 dollars.

A petite blonde, the new Director of Prisons gives an impression of restlessness, relaxing only she sheds her skirt and high heels for jeans and sneakers to play inmates in a prison courtyard.

Ferndanez took a graduate degree in penal sciences and criminology while teaching at a university, after obtaining honours in law and education. She practiced briefly as an attorney, and did volunteer work in legal consulting and sports activities in several prisons. In mid-1996, Meier, recently named Justice Minister, put her at the head of the department of inmates’ benefits, and a few months later named her to her current post.

“When I got here it was clear that there was a crisis of management. People reacted without evaluating or learning lessons,” she said “There was a big problem in response to emergencies…and no long-term planning.”

The total annual budget of Fernandez’ office is less than 17 million dollars, which must cover all the prisons and transfers of inmates to and from the courts. Poorly-trained and poorly-paid personnel is another primarary cause of the system’s current crisis,

“A guard earns 64 dollars a month, while undergoing a process of ‘prisonisation’.. it’s not only the inmate who suffers,” she said. But she added that “no one forces you to work in the prisons.”

She explained 350 functionaries were dismissed last year, and she was continuing the process of removing less qualified people while creating 500 new streamlined posts, with different characteristics and hiring criteria.

Fernandez, who is unmarried, admits her own salary is far from impressive, but she comes from a wealthy immigrant family – “something that always made me aware of a need to give back part of all that I have received.”

Another element of her strategy is to integrate civil society, partly through a broad network of volunteers and support from business. “Prisons are not only the ministry’s problem, but one of society as a whole.”

She acknowledges that “the prisons have become big business” in which a number of ‘mafias’ are entrenched, and also admits to problems with security provided by the military national guard.

“But we are working out these problems with very positive weekly meetings with the top commander” of the national guard. Furthermore, “our officials are now searched by the guards before entering, so responsibility for the entry of arms and drugs can be clarified.”

Fernandez speaks with compassion about the prisoners. But she acknowledges that they are used to violence and disorder. “Creating another prison culture is a difficult and long process. I know they appreciate and respect me, but they know I demand discipline.” she said. Her desk is littered with dozens of messages from inmates, reporting problems and complaints, and her office is decorated with their handmade crafts.

The Ministry budget only allows a dollar a day for each prisoner’s upkeep which is supposed to be sufficient for a balanced diet planned by nutritionists. “I won’t try to fool anyone: a large part of those funds have been diverted, and that hurts the inmates’ diet,” Frenandez said

Diplomatic as regards the delays in court hearings and sentencing, she does not fail to underline that “with more than 80 percent of prisoners still pending sentencing, no in-depth solution is possible.”

Fernadez was critical “sensationalist” press coverage that only highlighted the negative aspects of the prisons. While “I do not want, nor ask, for these to be to be hushed up” – she mentions the sports and cultural activities, new work programmes and incentives for prisoners and guards, which are never reported. “We have one of the country’s best salsa bands, made up of prisoners, but no journalist has ever come to hear them play.”

Fernandez says she does not know how long she will remain in her post. “I know it’s easy to burn-out and that this post is a hot potato. And they can sack me any time,” especially since she is politically independent and has no patrons in the parties.

“When I arrived, Congress asked for my curriculum vitae, and when they found nothing to say, some started to complain that I was too young, and even worse, that I was a woman.”

Some even hinted that she reached had reached her post “through the minister’s bedroom.” she laughed. “I hope he forgives me because I really admire him, but as the saying goes, you can have problems, but not bad taste!”

Returning to the business in hand, Fernandez said solutions to the crisis in the natyion’s prison system must be based on a collective analysis that goes to the very roots, to the prevailing model of the family and the values taught.

“The current legal system, based on criminalisation of conduct where any infringement is punished with prison, must be reveewed,” she said. “As long as such things are not corrected, we can only try to keep the prisons from shaming us in the eyes of the world – and society as a whole shares the responsibility for that.”