Overview
- Justice Minister Luis Jiménez Borra unveiled the National Decongestion Plan on Wednesday, setting a 2026–2028 roadmap to cut pressure on Peru’s packed prisons.
- In phase one, the prison authority INPE will forward 5,000 case files to the Judiciary for coordinated review that could lead to supervised releases.
- Only people convicted of low‑severity offenses with sentences under four years will be considered, while crimes such as homicide, contract killing and extortion are excluded.
- The plan also adds capacity by hiring 500 penitentiary staff and completing facilities in Abancay, Iquitos, Arequipa and Pucallpa that together are projected to provide 3,202 housing units.
- Officials cited acute overcrowding of more than 100,000 people in space built for about 41,000 and said the plan fixes slowdowns like incomplete files, manual processing and delayed hearings through phased reforms that run to 2028.