Paraguayan criminal judge José Agustín Delmás harshly criticized the country's prison system, classifying current legislation as obsolete and incapable of promoting the social reintegration of convicts. In an interview, Delmás stated that Prison Law 210/70, in force since the 1970s, is not aligned with the Criminal Execution Code and needs to be urgently modernized.
“We have a totally outdated prison law that does not keep up with the Criminal Execution Code. It is Law 210/70, and we are talking about a regulation from the 1970s that goes through a series of figures that need to be changed,” said the magistrate.
Delmás explained that before the creation of execution judges, convicts were practically abandoned by the judicial system after sentencing, without any effective control over their situation or reintegration process. “The judge practically had no say, and that convicted person was forgotten by the justice system. Who controlled that social reintegration? It was like throwing papers into a trunk and forgetting,” he compared.
He acknowledged that the creation of execution judges represented progress, but highlighted that social reintegration, provided for in the National Constitution, is a difficult goal to achieve in closed prison regimes. “It is practically impossible, not only in Paraguay but in most countries of the world. It is very difficult for there to be such reintegration, because conviction also causes a person to become uprooted from their family,” he said.
The judge also warned about the phenomenon that prisons become “crime universities,” where many inmates end up reoffending or worsening their situation. For Delmás, a comprehensive reform is necessary to modernize detention conditions, strengthen judicial oversight, and create more effective rehabilitation mechanisms.