Historical Evolution and Global Changes in Women's Imprisonment in Peru
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12214 |
| Author | CHLOÉ CONSTANT |
| Published date | 01 September 2017 |
| Date | 01 September 2017 |
The Howard Journal Vol56 No 3. September 2017 DOI: 10.1111/hojo.12214
ISSN 2059-1098, pp. 326–342
Historical Evolution and Global
Changes in Women’s Imprisonment
in Peru
CHLO´
E CONSTANT
Associate Professor, Universidad Aut´
onoma Metropolitana-unidad Xochimilco,
Departamento Pol´
ıtica y Cultura; Associate Researcher, Centro de Estudios
Mexicanos y Centro Americanos (CEMCA), Mexico
Abstract: This article analyses the evolution of female confinement and imprisonment in
Peru fromthe colonial period until the 21st Century, demonstrating how political, histor-
ical and social changes in Peruvian society influenced the changing processes of female
imprisonment during three phases of its development. The first important developments
were introduced by the transfer of criminal female control from religious institutions to
national prison institutions. Second, the context of the internal armed conflict shaped
penal policies at the end of the 20th Century and marked the beginning of mass female
incarceration. Finally, this phenomenon coincides with important structural changes on
a local and regional scale, and can be considered as an echo of global trends in penal
policies.
Keywords: drug mules; female confinement; female imprisonment; imprison-
ment policies; international drug trafficking; mass incarceration; Peru
If women’s imprisonment worldwide once represented an invisible sphere
for both society and academics, times have changed. It has progressively
turned into an object of concern for international institutions (UN Office
on Drugs and Crime and World Health Organization 2009), recently crys-
tallised with the Bangkok Rules for the Treatment of Women’s Prisoners
(United Nations 2010). Academic scholarship on women’s imprisonment
is now well documented in both the global north (Cardi and Pruvost 2012;
Carlen and Worrall 2004; Cunha 2001/2; Iavchunovskaia and Stepanova
2009; Sudbury 2005) and, to a lesser extent in the south (Azaola Garrido
and Yacam´
an 1996; Cherukuri, Britton and Subramaniam 2009; Constant
2011; Constant and Boutron 2013; Gray 2006; Mahtani 2013). In Latin
America, Mexican researchers have pioneered studies of female imprison-
ment, especially Lagarde (1990) and Azaola (Azaola 1998; Azaola Garrido
and Yacam´
an, 1996). Recent studies have focused on the theme from
a sociological perspective (Boutron 2008; Constant and Boutron 2013;
326
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2017 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK
The Howard Journal Vol56 No 3. September 2017
ISSN 2059-1098, pp. 326–342
Constant and Rojas Pomar 2011), but few scholars have analysed the his-
tory of women’s imprisonment in Peru. The exception is Carlos Aguirre
(1995, 2003) whose scholarship I draw on here, in developing links between
history and sociology,1inorder to understand the evolution of women’s im-
prisonment in Peru. This article offers an historical perspective on women’s
imprisonment in Peru in order to contextualise life stories of women im-
prisoned for drug offences in Peru, drawing on research undertaken in
Peruvian prisons during the last decade.
According to the Penitentiary National Institute (Instituto Nacional Pen-
itencairio (INPE)), in January 2016 women represented 5.9% of the na-
tional prison population, of whom 6% were foreigners (Instituto Nacional
Penitencairio (INPE) 2016). Changes have been dramatic during the last
50 years. Indeed, in the late 1960s, there were only 122 women impris-
oned in Santa Monica prison (Ramos Alva 1972) and only three of them
were foreigners, comprising 2,4% of the national female prison population.
When I undertook fieldwork in this prison in 2007, there were more than
1,200 female inmates, and almost 20% were foreigners (Constant 2011). At
present, this prison shelters 823 women, but since then, two new female
prisons have opened in Lima province. Santa Monica prison was the only
women’s prison in Peru in the 1970s; today there are 47 prisons through-
out the country that hold women (either exclusively holding females or
with a mixed population).
Of the national penal population in Peru, 21.8% are convicted or sen-
tenced for drug trafficking,2in its several forms.3Drug trafficking of-
fences correspond to 19.6% of male inmates but represent 58.3% of female
inmates. Finally, all foreigners, both men and women, are convicted of
drug trafficking offences. They come from all five continents but the USA
and Europe are the main sources of drug mules. Colombia, Spain, and
Mexico, together represent 49% of the international prison population in
Peru. Colombia is one of the main countries where coca leaves are pro-
cessed; Mexico represents a key border country with the United States of
America – the biggest cocaine consumer worldwide – and Spain is the
main destination for the importation of cocaine to Europe (UN Office
on Drugs and Crime 2016). Although historical trade routes and mi-
gration are important, shared language and direct flights are two key
factors.
In 2011, I undertook 34 qualitative in-depth interviews with inmates
from Santa Monica prison, who had first completed a quantitative ques-
tionnaire (Constant 2013b). Of those, 20% had a regular job before their
incarceration, 50% were under-employed, and 30% had no job. Among
the 53% of Peruvian inmates interviewed, their incomes were absolutely
heterogeneous, with revenues between 0 and S./2000 (USD$714), with a
S./475 (USD$170) median salary, that is to say under the minimum salary
fixed to S./750.4More than 68% of the women interviewed were convicted
or sentenced for drug trafficking. Poverty and social and economic insecu-
rity were a common denominator among these women. The social profile
of women in prison in Peru is characterised by poverty. In some respects
their profile is similar to that reported elsewhere. As I will go on to argue,
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2017 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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