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Peru Tightens Prison Regime as INPE Opens New Maximum‑Security Units, Eyes Naval Base Transfers

The overhaul targets illicit communications that fuel extortion from inside overcrowded prisons.

Overview

  • Justice Ministry Decree No. 019-2025-JUS reinforces the special closed regime with three control stages that sharply restrict visits, yard time and movement for high‑risk inmates.
  • INPE began relocating dangerous prisoners to new maximum‑security pavilions in Challapalca, Cochamarca and Ancón I, with 45 already transferred and capacity planned for more than 400.
  • Authorities reported sweeping contraband finds in recent requisas in Lurigancho, Castro Castro and Ancón I, while an audio under investigation suggests inmates are hiding phones to evade intensified searches.
  • Only 30 of 69 prisons have cellphone signal blockers and Challapalca lacks one, as INPE pursues new procurements alongside mandatory polygraph tests and swift discipline for staff implicated in corruption.
  • Officials are evaluating moving some inmates to the CEREC at the Naval Base in Callao, while the penitentiary union plans plantones on Oct. 30 and Nov. 4 and warns of an indefinite strike starting Nov. 12.