Executive Decree PCM-068-2019 through which a state of emergency is declared in the National Penitentiary System

DECLARE A STATE OF EMERGENCY IN THE NATIONAL PENITENTIARY SYSTEM, with the purpose of accelerating strengthening and ensuring the improvement of a new penitentiary management system.

To intervene in the National Penitentiary System for a period of six (6) months which includes the National Penitentiary Institute and the National Institute for the Care of Minor Offenders, appointing for this purpose an Intervention Commission integrated in full by the National Interinstitutional Security Force (FUSINA) created by means of Resolution of the National Council of Defense and Security No. of date February of , which shall assume all legal competencies, both those established in the General Law of Public Administration and the special ones that govern this matter for the fulfillment of its purposes from the date of entry into force of this Executive Decree. The foregoing also in adherence to standards in matters of human rights and in particular in matters of childhood and adolescence. All superior authorities of these Institutions are suspended in the exercise of their functions, during the time the intervention lasts, including the Directive Council of the Penitentiary System and any other body of direction or management; for which reason, the Intervention Commission created shall hold in full form the coordination and administration of the institutions mentioned in the paragraph that precedes. The declared emergency empowers the Intervention Commission to proceed with the temporary suspension of personnel, the termination of work contracts or the revocation of Agreements of personnel considered unnecessary, with the accompaniment of the State Secretariat in the Offices of Labor and Social Security and the Civil Service Direction according as corresponds the action to be taken supported by the State Secretariat in the Office of Finance in order to provide funds to cover labor rights. From the findings encountered, if appropriate, the Intervention Commission must report to the Superior Court of Accounts (TSC), the Public Ministry (MP) or the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) as may be the case.

The Intervention Commission has the following mission:

• 1)

  To achieve the normalization and correct functioning of the Penitentiary Centers and in the Pedagogical Centers of Internment for Minor Offenders Deprived of Liberty, prioritizing those of maximum security;

• 2)

  To present to the President of the Republic, a comprehensive proposal for restructuring, based on the review of the penitentiary management framework that includes among others the normative, the procedural, the administrative and budgetary;

• 3)

  To establish a process for ordering medical care for persons deprived of liberty for which it must coordinate with the State Secretariat in the Office of Health and with the Department of Forensic Medicine of the Public Ministry, the care of persons deprived of liberty in the Penitentiary Centers and in the Pedagogical Centers of Internment for Minor Offenders Deprived of Liberty for which the Health Secretariat must establish care modules;

• 4)

  To implement a new system of communication with the person deprived of liberty which includes among others all types of visits and telephone communication;

• 5)

  To enable or construct the physical and technological structure that allows the implementation of the virtual hearings system;

• 6)

  To establish a National Monitoring Center which will be fed by the local monitoring existing in each one of the jails;

• 7)

  Based on studies of Public Penitentiary Policy and in coordination with the Interinstitutional Commission of Criminal Justice, to propose solutions to reduce the penitentiary population; and 8. The others established in the General Law of Public Administration and others that by legal norm additionally correspond to it. For the fulfillment of this Executive Decree FUSINA can hire national or international experts in penitentiary matters and internment of minors as well as technological tools in matters of information and communication or other resources that allow the fulfillment of the mission.

To authorize the State Secretariats in the Offices of: Finance, Health, Security, Defense, Cabinet of Security and Defense and National Penitentiary Institute and other competent Institutions so that they can make the administrative actions that include modifications and actions in the related budgets to ensure the financing of the necessary actions for the fulfillment and achievement of the purpose established in this Executive Decree. The State Secretariats, the deconcentrated Institutions, as well as Directions or other dependencies of the Executive Power have the obligation to collaborate with the Intervention Commission for the achievement of the purposes of this Executive Decree.

The Intervention Commission must submit to the holder of the Executive Power a progress report of the actions taken monthly including the effect of the measures aimed at achieving administrative, operational and financial equilibrium of the Institution as well as the recommendations for its restructuring, modernization and improvement. The Executive Power, in view of the report of the Intervention Commission, must issue the decisions that are necessary deducing the responsibilities that may be appropriate in its case.

To remit to the National Congress of the Republic, the present Executive Decree for its knowledge.

This Decree enters into force as of the day of its publication in the Official Gazette "La Gaceta". LET IT BE COMMUNICATED AND PUBLISHED. Given at the Presidential House in the city of Tegucigalpa, municipality of the Central District, on the sixteenth (16) day of the month of December of the year two thousand nineteen (2019).