Argentina's prison population grew 3.4% last year, says report

Argentina’s prison population increased 3.4 percent last year – the largest increase in five years, according to government data.

A total of 11,696 people were detained in federal prisons nationwide at the end of 2024, with overcrowding placed at 6.3 percent, revealed the Procuraduría de Violencia Institucional (Prosecutor's Office for Institutional Violence, PROCUVIN) in its annual report.

The report states that over the last five calendar years “there has been a progressive and sustained trend of an increase in the number of convicted prisoners and a consequent decrease in the number of pre-trial detainees.”

According to PROCUVIN data, federal prisons saw an increase in the number of detainees last year, with maximum capacity exceeded by 694 inmates.

The number of inmates serving sentences increased by 9.8 percent year-on-year. Detainees held pre-trial detention decreased by 4.7 percent, compared to 2023.

Last year ended with more than half of the prison population serving custodial sentences, 6,949 inmates or 59.4 per cent. The remaining 4,745 were remanded in custody or on trial.

Looking at gender, the overwhelming majority of the prison population is male – 10,804 inmates at the end of 2024, representing 92.4 percent. There were 852 women in custody and 40 transgender persons.

The number of women in prison increased 5.8 percent year-on-year, from 805 detainees in December 2023 to 852 in December 2024. There was also a 37.9 percent increase in the transvestite-trans population over the same period.

PROCUVIN, headed by Attorney General Alberto Adrián María Gentili, noted in its report that as of last December, 332 people aged 18-21 were behind bars, an increase of 19 percent from the same month in 2023.

A total of 1,884 detainees, or 16.1 percent, were “of other nationalities,” added the report. Of those, 69 percent of foreign nationals incarcerated were from Paraguay (472), followed by Bolivia (434) and Peru (394). There are also notable contingents from Brazil (110), Uruguay (80) and Chile (22).”