Friends and foes: Interrogating recent trends in foreign-born populations incarcerated in Latin American prisons

• In Event: Mapping intersections of justice, law, and policy in Latin America: Old questions, new challenges, and emerging opportunities.

Abstract

This paper draws on administrative data to specify trends in prison populations for native vs. foreign-born individuals in Latin America since 2010. More specifically, it describes variation in the characteristics of incarcerated immigrants over time and across countries, in terms of custody status (pretrial/sentenced), criminal offense (by type and level of seriousness), and demographic characteristics (sex, age, national origin). While these trends are sensitive to issues of data completeness/uniformity, they point to growing gaps in the provision of social/legal services. I discuss these gaps and outline potential mechanisms at play by linking national, regional and global patterns of stigmatization and criminalization of immigrant populations.

Author

• Andres F Rengifo, Rutgers University