A judge launches the law that releases mothers who are heads of households who commit minor crimes from jail

The year 2023 ended with a milestone in the judicial system. On December 26, a judge from Ibagué (Tolima) granted conditional release for the first time after finding that the convicted person is a woman head of the family, sentenced to a short prison term for a crime committed due to her poverty. The woman, whose identity is private for security reasons, received a 39-month sentence in March 2023 for qualified and aggravated robbery. She is the first beneficiary of Law 2292, or Public Utility Law, which came into force in September and, according to a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice, is “focused on women who have committed crimes due to their condition of poverty, but who have under their control. responsibility to their children.” This law, promoted by the Government of Gustavo Petro, is the first penal alternative mechanism with a gender focus and one of several with which the Executive seeks to promote a more humanistic and less police-intensive penal system.

The beneficiary is a mother of three children between the ages of 17 months and 7 years. She will now serve her sentence through a community work plan of 18 hours a week, Monday through Friday, for 167 weeks, according to the court ruling. The tasks she will perform include supporting community projects, social development in community gardens and environmental conservation issues. According to the judge's decision, they are works that contribute to restorative justice processes. It is the first time in Colombia that a woman can substitute prison in exchange for social contributions due to the fact that she is the head of the family.

Precisely, the sentence highlights that she exercises her role as a family mother alone. Her ex-partner, father of the youngest child, “rejects paternity of the infant.” In addition, she reported him for domestic violence, an act for which he has been convicted. The order explains that “there is a strong attachment” to the mother on the part of the 17-month-old child, who is “in the lactating stage.” Therefore, “a separation of mother and child would affect the child's comprehensive development and general condition.”

The nexus between crime and poverty

Much of the reason why the woman received conditional release, the order explains, is due to the “causal link between the crime and the socioeconomic violation.” The document maintains that her poverty led her to commit, in October 2021, the robbery for which she was convicted: “It is clear that there was a communion of real need that motivated the punitive behavior.” The woman lives, along with six relatives, in a two-room rental apartment with zinc tiles. The family has “poor socioeconomic conditions,” given that only the prisoner's brother and father work as independent mechanics.

According to the document, the scarce economic resources of the home affect the growth of all children. “A cycle of poverty is observed in the lady's family,” she says. The judge develops the social perspective of Law 2292, and explains that criminal sanctions must be combined with policies to improve the situation of impoverished people, even if they have committed crimes. “Punishment cannot be sought in the ways of perpetrating the cycle of poverty and the less favored class, but rather to foster a space of reconciliation and resocialization between society and the punished,” he states in the order.

Once released on parole, the woman will have the opportunity to work, study and support her children, explains the Vice Minister of Criminal Policy, Camilo Umaña, by phone. While he dedicates himself to this, the order establishes that the Family Welfare Institute must contact the family to verify the possibility of entering the children into its protection programs.

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