MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Boric keen on not mirroring Ecuador's crisis

A person who commits a crime is also a human being, Boric argued

Chilean President Gabriel Boric Font Monday said during an engagement in the Coquimbo Region that his administration needed to do things to not have to go through the crisis Ecuador is experiencing. “We have to ask ourselves how we do things so that we don't get to that place,” Boric underlined.

Upon launching the new Juvenile Social Reinsertion Service in the northern macro-zone of the country, Boric said he had asked Justice Minister Luis Cordero for a report about the current situation in the country's prisons, in a move to avoid similar scenarios. Boric also insisted it was necessary to promote reinsertion measures to cut the “vicious circle” of delinquency.

“In Latin America, a large percentage of prisons are in the hands of the same inmates and are centers and schools of crime, and where the more people we put in prison, the more cannon fodder we add to be able to continue with that same vicious circle,” Boric said.

“In Chile, we are not in that place, but we are not exempt from the risk, and therefore, we have to ask ourselves how we do things so as not to get to that place,” he added.

The President also highlighted the importance of a long-term vision to curb crime, by giving people the opportunity to seek their reintegration into society. “When the channels and the media, and society as a whole, are permanently talking about the crimes that happen every day -and that's fine, one cannot deny reality-, we should also ask ourselves how we solve it with a long-term perspective,” Boric argued.

While admitting the need to curb illegal activities, Boric recalled that “we must understand that the person who commits a crime is also a human being.”

“What is being done inside the prisons, inside the reinsertion centers, today is not enough,” he also pointed out.