Ernesto Schargrodsky
Santiago Tobón

We analyze the current situation of prisons in Latin America and the Caribbean. Many prisons in our region have ceased to be neutral holding facilities and, instead, operate as recruitment centers, financial nodes, and command posts for the region’s major criminal organizations. Drawing on comparative data, case studies, and prior scholarly work, we document four mechanisms that turn overcrowded and weakly supervised prisons into ‘criminal hubs’: recruitment of new members, extraction of illicit income, coordination of violence and alliances, and enforcement of internal discipline. We then show why these dynamics erode the three classic justifications for imprisonment. Incapacitation fails when bosses run extortion and trafficking networks from their cells; deterrence fails when prison time is an expected milestone in a gang’s career; resocialization fails when survival behind bars depends on joining a criminal group. Finally, we outline a policy agenda that reserves confinement for truly high‑risk offenders; substitutes electronic monitoring and other community sanctions for low‑risk cases; invests in better-managed facilities that offer dignified living conditions, accelerates trials to shrink pretrial detention; delivers evidence‑based resocialization opportunities such as cognitive behavioral, vocational, and educational programs; and severs illicit communications through rigorous staff oversight and technology. Implemented together, these steps can loosen the grip of organized crime on prison systems and restore prisons’ roles in public safety.