Modulations of Punitive Power: Criminal Justice Reforms and the Expansion of the Power to Punish

Abstract

In this article, we aim to analyze the transformations in the administration of criminal justice within the general framework of the modernization process of the security and crime control apparatus in the province of San Juan. Our province was not immune to the judicial reforms driven by multilateral credit organizations for all of Latin America with the declared purpose of strengthening the democracies of these countries. The arguments put forth to justify these reforms at the local level lose weight and credibility when contrasted with the immediate consequences of their implementation. The analysis of the reasons stated over three decades exposes the instrumental logics that guide this process. This examination allows us to observe the legal and institutional mutations, both internal and external to the spaces of criminal justice, and to observe the consequences of these transformations in relation to a potential violation of minimum constitutional guarantees that must be preserved during the development of a criminal process. The way in which the reforms have been implemented impacts other external areas of action beyond the justice system itself and shift to police and penitentiary spaces, causing direct consequences on the lives and rights of individuals subjected to penal control, hence the importance of its study.