Overview
- Senior ministers have confirmed the government will include a proposal in its legislative package to assign the Armed Forces operational control of prison perimeters while the police keep responsibility for internal searches and interventions.
- Defense officials say military units would staff access points and use scanners and metal detectors to screen visitors and prison staff.
- The plan calls for 24-hour mobile-signal blocking and drone neutralization systems and the Defense Ministry is seeking technical cooperation with the U.S. Embassy to implement those technologies.
- The executive package also seeks legal changes to streamline detention and expulsion of undocumented foreigners linked to criminal groups and to expand the military’s authority for hostile-group responses.
- Officials tie the move to a broader push to reform the overcrowded penitentiary system after institutional strain at INPE and say new inter-agency protocols between Mindef, INPE, the PNP and the Public Ministry are needed before deployment.