Automated systems for decision-making in argentine penitentiary policy:

an exploratory study on their introduction in the federal penitentiary service

Abstract

In the aftermath of the social, political, and economic crisis of 2001 in Argentina, the longstanding penitentiary management model began to disintegrate. This model, despite its fluctuations, had primarily been sustained on the principles of punitive reformism and the ideology of resocialization since the formation of the national state. A significant portion of this paradigmatic shift was encapsulated in the so-called Plan Estratégico Operativo 2016-2020. This plan, for the first time, introduced computerized and automated algorithmic systems for decision-making in the comprehensive management of the incarcerated population in Argentina. This article is grounded in an empirical ethnographic study specifically dedicated to examining the design process of one of these systems with the aim of reconsidering the intersections between their frameworks and the adherence to the principles established in national regulations, international Human Rights recommendations, and the institutional discourses of the penitentiary agency that have traditionally guided the management of federal prisons in our country. With no precedents in the study of the use of these systems in Argentina, this paper offers a set of preliminary findings intended to propose some bases for discussion and analysis of the progress, challenges, and issues posed by the process of technologization and digitization in national penitentiary management.