The baby called and reached towards the metal detector security door. “Mom, mom,” she said. A prison official waved her. This is the visit time at El Buen Pastor Prison, the largest women’s detention center in Colombia. Behind the black door, six women waited anxiously. Mom wears the best clothes and folds around the child.
Inside, the prison is collapsing. Black mold climbs up the walls; broken windows have been replaced by plastic sheets. Prisoners said five to six people shared the creation of two cells.
“It’s so scary here,” said prisoner Daniela Martinez. “The conditions are scary. Once you enter, hope is lost.”
The population of women prisons in Colombia has increased more than five times since 1991, which is largely a disproportionate drug law for punishing women. More than one-third of the crimes related to drug imprisonment; many are secondary players in the trafficking chain.
The country (producing most of the world’s cocaine) has long been plagued by the drug trade that has promoted organized crime and conflict and continues to flourish.
Now, Colombian President Gustavo Petro is trying to adopt a new approach – from punishment to recovery.
“Colombia has been the best student of the global drug system and has done everything we have been told to do for decades,” said Laura Gil, Colombia’s general global drug policy ambassador. “But today, we have record production, record consumption and record trafficking in Narco.
“We need to put people at the forefront, not prisons at the forefront,” she added.
A key reform is the Utilities Act proposed in March 2023 to allow incarcerated women to become family leaders and serve a sentence of less than eight years to complete community services. It is mainly granted to women convicted of drug trafficking.
Colombian Attorney General Ángela María Buittragoruiz said in the El Buen Pastor prison that a large proportion of the female prisoners are poor and come from rural areas where they are vulnerable to cartels. “Many women here are suffering from marginalised. Although in many cases they have trafficked drugs, in many cases they don’t know what they are smuggling,” she said. “We need to change the system. We need to protect women.”
Prisoner Martinez was sentenced to five years and four months after discovering 10 kilograms of marijuana in her home. “I was cheated. I was asked to catch it for someone and then two hours later, the police came.” “I’m a ule.”
People think and say that prisons are places for people to recover and educate, but that’s all lies
Patricia Cortes, Prisoner
Patricia Cortes, 23, is one of the people released under the plan. She was released on September 17, 2024, for her first incarceration for conspiracy to commit crimes, traffic drugs, manufacture or possess narcotics.
Cortez said she had taken photos with her mother, who began selling narcotics to escape poverty. “Her motivation is our family needs: She has eight children, five of them are minors, and my dad left,” she said. “She needs money.”
Cortez said women are the first to be valued by Colombia’s drug crisis.
In the prison chapel, the Attorney General broadcasts a prisoner, one of whom left Pastor Al Boone under the plan. “Please help us and give us a second chance for the women,” she said. The prisoner looked and cheered.
“People think and say that prison is a place for people to recover and educate, but it’s all a lie. In prison, everything is rejected,” Cortez said. “Many people have worse prisons than going to prison.”
So far, only 143 women have been released – 99 of whom have been charged with drug crimes – despite more than 2,600 community service spaces. The Justice Department blames “conservative judges” on stagnant progress, while civil society leaders say the definition of “marginality” creates difficulties in court.
Related: Prejudiced laws and poverty drive a huge increase in female prisoners – Report
“We don’t have high hopes for being released,” Martinez said. “We are more useful than internally; all we have to do here is waste of time. But we’ve seen how many requests are rejected.”
In addition to the Utilities Act, Petro also launched a 10-year drug policy in October, proposing to change the narrative around psychoactive substances, prioritize rural development, reduce Coca-Cola, and help small farmers transition to the legal economy.
In March, the Colombian government also led a historical resolution of the UN Committee on Narcotic Drugs, proposing reforms to the existing 60-year-old system.
Civil society leaders criticized PETRO’s 10-year plan for lack of strategy. As security conditions worsen, this also resulted in tens of thousands of displacements and prevented entry into critical Coca-Cola arable land.
Locals also want to know if the policy is far enough. In the Bogota community, which has been hurt by the drug industry for a long time, people say the root cause of the problem is educational poverty.
“There was no chance to get an education here. They turned to drugs at the age of 13 and thought it would give them a solution to the problem. Then they joined the gang. Many young people around us were in prison or died. The government needed to repair the school first.”
Martinez applied for release under the Utilities Act and agreed more action was needed.
“Drugs will affect everything in this country – family, economy, work, social life,” she said. “The government needs to work harder to break the chain.”
