The Criminal Justice of La Plata has in its sights the Minister of Security of the province of Buenos Aires Sergio Berni for the alleged non-compliance with a judicial resolution that ordered the closure of the cells of the Segunda de La Plata police station, which currently registers an overcrowding of 130%: has 11 places available and there are 25 people staying in the sectional located on avenida 38 between calle 8 and Olazabal Square.
At the end of last November, the judge Juan Carlos Bruni it gave rise to a habeas corpus due to the precarious conditions of detention of the detainees. In that resolution, he ordered the closure of the cells and issued a letter to the Security portfolio to order the prohibition of housing detainees in police stations “whose cells are closed.”
The habeas corpus was issued on November 29, almost a month has passed and the outlook is still as serious as then. Not only was the court order not complied with, but the crisis situation due to overcrowding of people deepened.
In the last point of the resolution it is detailed that before “the possible commission of a crime of public action” proceedings are sent to the prosecutor on duty.
The administration of all the provincial police stations is the responsibility of the Buenos Aires Ministry of Security, whose head is the controversial Berni, who at the beginning of his administration in December 2019, promised a solution to the overcrowding in police stations. At the moment, the photograph has not changed.
In February 2020, Berni raised a proposal to the Provincial Commission for Memory (CPM) to begin deactivating the bomb of overpopulation in police stations: to house detainees in containers adapted for the accommodation of people. The project was rejected by the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) and by the National Committee against Torture.
In an interview with the newspaper Profilethe governor maintained that from the situation of prison overcrowding “they get out by building prisons” and that this possible solution is “one of the conclusions” of the work group that made up the Buenos Aires Ministry of Justice, the provincial Ministry of Security, the Supreme Court and the Attorney General, among other actors.
