Prisoner Rights Restored Following Venezuelan Supreme Court Decision

[Joanne98]

Hunger striking prisoners in Venezuela obtained a legal tool to facilitate their reinsertion in society on Monday, after the president of Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ), Luisa Estela Morales, approved an injunction that could lead to a ruling that key articles of the penal code are unconstitutional.

The measure “is of transcendental importance in the advancement of the application of the benefits that the inmates demand… including the social reinsertion of citizens who have committed a crime,” Morales said in a press conference Monday.

The cautionary measure can be used to annul 9 sections of the penal code and drug trafficking law that limit the constitutional rights of people convicted of the gravest violent, sexual, and drug trafficking-related crimes.

These rights, which were previously guaranteed only to prisoners convicted of less severe crimes, include working outside the prison after completing a quarter of their sentence, less restrictive living arrangements after completing a third of their sentence, and conditional release on good behavior after completing two thirds of their sentence.

“We are convinced that human beings can be rectified,” Morales told the press Monday. “We believe in social reinsertion and we are convinced that all people who have completed two thirds or a quarter of their sentence and have maintained good conduct should receive another opportunity.”
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3379