Argentina
Corrections in Argentina
A federal prison service — now under the Ministry of National Security — alongside each province's own, and a national custody total that includes people held in police lock-ups.
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Prisons in Argentina are run at both levels: the Federal Penitentiary Service and each province's own penitentiary service, the provincial systems holding a large share of the total. The Federal Penitentiary Service was transferred from the Ministry of Justice to the Ministry of Security by Decree 8/2024 — so both the federal police forces and the federal prison service now sit under that ministry, which Decree DNU 58/2025 renamed the Ministry of National Security in February 2025.
The same idea, explained generally
- What is justice?
Justice is the principle that people should be treated according to rules that apply equally to everyone, decided by bodies that are authorised, constrained, and answerable. This guide explains what that means institutionally.
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Justice institutions hold coercive powers, often operate out of public view, and make decisions that are hard to reverse. This guide explains the oversight mechanisms built to detect and correct errors, and their limits.
Sources
Sources
Decree 8/2024 — transfer of the Federal Penitentiary Service to the Ministry of Security
Boletín Oficial de la República Argentina · Legislation · 2024-01-03 · link verified 2026-07-27
Decree 8/2024 (Official Gazette, early January 2024), confirmed in two independent passes via the Official Gazette. Supports that by its Article 2 the Federal Penitentiary Service (Servicio Penitenciario Federal), a decentralised body of the Ministry of Justice, was transferred to the Ministry of Security — so that both the federal police forces and the federal prison service came to sit under the same ministry. That ministry was renamed the Ministry of National Security by Decree DNU 58/2025 (ar-dnu-58-2025), which also provides that references to the Ministry of Security are to be read as references to it. Cited for the ministerial placement of the federal prison service.
World Prison Brief — Argentina
Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research (ICPR), Birkbeck, University of London · Academic · link verified 2026-07-27
The World Prison Brief country page for Argentina (compiled by ICPR from the Ministry of Justice SNEEP data), read directly and re-confirmed by hand. Supports a total prison population of 133,585 at 31 December 2024 — a figure that includes 12,885 people held in police lock-ups (comisarías) — a rate of 284 per 100,000, and an official capacity of 98,199 (not including police lock-ups) at the same date, giving an occupancy level of 122.9% for the prison system proper. Prisons are run at both the federal (Servicio Penitenciario Federal) and provincial levels, so this is a national aggregate; the occupancy compares the prison-system population and capacity, both excluding the police lock-ups that the total includes.
Ministerio de Justicia — Información Legislativa (argentina.gob.ar/normativa) · Legislation · 2025-02-04 · link verified 2026-10-10
SCOPE: the name of the national ministry responsible for Argentina’s federal security forces, and nothing else. The decree’s original text on the national legislation service, read directly: sanctioned 3 February 2025 and published in the Boletín Oficial on 4 February 2025 (number 35602). Supports art. 1, which substitutes art. 1 of the Ley de Ministerios 22.520 so that the list of ministries reads "De Seguridad Nacional"; art. 6, which substitutes art. 22 bis so that "Compete al MINISTERIO DE SEGURIDAD NACIONAL" assisting the President in matters of internal security, including "la dirección y coordinación de funciones y jurisdicciones de las Fuerzas Policiales y de Seguridad nacionales"; and art. 7, which transfers the former ministry’s commitments and provides that wherever existing rules refer to the Ministry of Security it "deberá considerarse sustituida por la expresión “MINISTERIO DE SEGURIDAD NACIONAL”". The decree names no individual force, and none is named from it. As an original text it does not establish later amendments to the Ley de Ministerios.