Terrorists in their sights: Chile's election campaign calls for new prison solutions!

Terrorists in their sights: Chile's election campaign calls for new prison solutions!

In recent days, the Chilean presidential election campaign has intensified, and security issues in particular have taken center stage. The populist candidate Franco Parisi from the Parti du Peuple has put forward a proposal that has made many people sit up and take notice: the creation of “Prisons-bateaux” for “terrorists and members of organized crime”. These floating prisons are intended to house between 300 and 500 inmates and could be positioned around 100 kilometers off the coast. With this concept, Parisi not only wants to improve public safety, but also send a clear signal against increasing violence.

But he is not the only one dealing with the topic. His competitor Evelyn Matthei from the Union Démocrate Indépendante proposes building isolated prisons in the desert to keep the “worst criminals” away from the rest of society. At the same time, the left-wing candidate Jeannette Jara from the Partido Comunista announced that she had “no complexes about security issues”. It plans to build five new prisons that will accommodate up to 10,000 additional prisoners. The first round of voting will take place on November 16, and security policy plays a crucial role in the candidates' election programs. Liberation reports about it in detail.

A look at U.S. incarceration policy

Sentencing Project also sheds light on this topic clearly.

Are you rethinking security?

The prison system in the United States is also subject to different classifications. There are, among other things, maximum security institutions, such as the United States Penitentiaries (USPs), as well as various categories of correctional institutions that are divided according to security levels and facilities. The Federal Bureau of Prisons organizes the system and has published a list of detention locations ranging from private prisons to special administrative facilities. This diversity could serve as an indicator that the treatment of prisoners is far from uniform, and that there are effective alternatives to dealing with criminals rather than wasting them in what are widely viewed as ineffective mass incarceration programs. Further information can be found on the Wikipedia page.

Overall, both Chile and the United States appear to be facing the challenge of how to deal with incarceration and public safety. While some consider creative solutions such as floating prisons, others can only learn from their history to achieve better results. It remains exciting to see which approaches voters in Chile will adopt.