Q COSTARICA — One day after Rodrigo Chaves announced a new presidential veto, opposition members of the Legislative Assembly approved the bill on the execution of sentences in its second debate.
The law passed Thursday night in second and final debate does not change convictions or reduce sentences; rather, it establishes clear rules and regulations on how sentences are served once a person has been convicted.
Currently, many decisions regarding the execution of sentences, such as prison benefits, changes in prison conditions, transfers, and disciplinary measures, are based on administrative circulars and criteria that are not always formally established in law. Therefore, in principle, political decisions are sometimes made, or decisions are based on informal criteria.
The proposal was approved with the votes of 33 legislators from the PLN, the Frente Amplio, the PUSC, Nueva República, and independent legislators, while the ruling party legislators voted against it.
What happens now?
Following its approval in second debate, the bill goes to the Presidential Palace for President Chaves’s signature.
Because he announced he would veto the proposal, the Legislative Assembly will need 38 votes in plenary session to override the president’s veto and definitively approve the new law.
Otherwise, the bill will suffer what is known in legislative jargon as a “faithful burial,” passing through all the Assembly’s procedures only to fail in the final stage of the process.
“They just approved the ‘Ley de Ejecución de la Pena’, a project of the Judiciary, to legalize the complicity we are experiencing today, where the judges overseeing execution of sentences will continue to have control and release people without respecting technical criteria,” President Chaves stated previously.
Among his arguments is, for example, that a single judge overseeing execution of sentences can overturn a ruling by a criminal court.
He also emphasized that the recommendations issued by the National Institute of Criminology, which includes social workers, psychologists, and criminologists, are not binding.
For their part, opposition members of parliament stated that the law on the execution of sentences is a long-standing debt of Costa Rica.
They also stressed that the vision within the bill is to achieve the reintegration into society of people who have committed a crime, while ensuring that individuals are treated with dignity. They reject the notion that it constitutes complicity.
“It is a national responsibility and a responsibility of this Legislative Assembly to approve this law. The law is correct; the law is in accordance with the law. When a sentence is imposed, the parties who disagree can appeal, even to the Supreme Court. But once the sentence is final, it must be carried out according to the treatment parameters within the prison system, of course, but under judicial oversight,” said Gloria Navas, an independent member of parliament.