Panama: More imprisonment, more overcrowding, and the same violence

From the Women and Afro-Resistance Meeting Space, we express our deep concern about the sustained growth of the prison population and the consolidation of responses centered on punishment as the main security strategy in Panama.

As of April 2026, Panama had 24,831 people incarcerated in a country of just 4.2 million inhabitants. This equates to approximately 591 people incarcerated per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest rates in Latin America and the world. However, using data from the World Prison Brief, Panama has a rate of 527 people incarcerated per 100,000 inhabitants ( based on an estimated national population of 4.68 million at the end of February 2026, according to United Nations figures). With this rate, Panama ranks 7th globally, surpassed only by El Salvador, Cuba, Turkmenistan, the United States, American Samoa, and Guam.

Panama incarcerates a proportionally higher number of people than countries like Mexico, with a rate of 192 per 100,000 inhabitants (February 2026), Colombia, with 197 per 100,000 inhabitants (April 2026), Argentina, with 284 per 100,000 inhabitants (2024), Costa Rica, with 345 per 100,000 inhabitants (2023), Guatemala, with 123 per 100,000 inhabitants (2023), and Honduras, with 188 per 100,000 inhabitants (2023). In the region, only extreme examples of prison expansion, such as El Salvador, with 1,659 per 100,000 inhabitants, have a significantly higher rate.

A failed prison system that increases violence

Far from being an indicator of success, this reality should set off alarm bells. We are not facing an insufficient prison system, but rather a security model deeply dependent on incarceration as a response to complex social problems. Panama is among the most punitive countries in the Americas and the world, while profound social, racial, and territorial inequalities persist.

Of the 24,831 people deprived of their liberty, 16,085 have been convicted, and 8,742 remain in pretrial detention without a conviction, far exceeding the six-month limit for pretrial detention. This means that more than one in three people deprived of their liberty has not yet received a final sentence. This situation raises serious concerns about due process, the presumption of innocence, and access to justice, as well as the lack of redress for victims, seriously eroding the legitimacy of the justice system.

The situation is even more alarming when we consider the levels of overcrowding. The Panamanian prison system has a capacity for approximately 14,695 people, but houses more than 24,000, reaching an occupancy rate of nearly 167% of its installed capacity. In some prisons, the situation is scandalous.

Panamanian prisons face severe overcrowding. The Las Tablas prison, located in the province of Los Santos, houses more than five times the population for which it was designed, while the Santiago prison, in Veraguas, is over four times over capacity. Several other prisons in the country also operate with extreme levels of overcrowding.

In June 2026, the government announced a $392 million investment for the construction of three new prisons , including a maximum-security facility with a capacity for 2,000 inmates under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, as well as new prison complexes in Divisa and La Joya. According to authorities, these projects aim to expand the system's capacity and reduce overcrowding. However, it is concerning that, given the proven failure of mass incarceration, the primary response continues to be building more prisons. This decision confirms a public policy focused on expanding punishment and confinement rather than on violence prevention, effective rehabilitation, and social investment in historically excluded communities.

Adding to this crisis is a reality that rarely features in public debate. The First Penitentiary Census, conducted in 2018 and published in 2019, revealed that 41% of the incarcerated population identifies as Afro-descendant and 7% as Indigenous. When 48% of the prison population is comprised of Afro-descendant and Indigenous people in a country where these groups represent a larger proportion of the total population as is the case for Afro-descendants and almost half in the case of Indigenous people we are not simply facing a prison crisis; we are facing an expression of the structural racism and historical inequalities that permeate Panamanian society.

“Racialized and classist prison justice”

Panamanian prisons are defined by race, class, and territory. It is no coincidence that those who fill these prisons come primarily from communities plagued by poverty, educational exclusion, precarious employment, structural racism, and state neglect. The overrepresentation of Afro-descendant and Indigenous people in detention centers is a warning sign for any society that aspires to equality and justice. The problem is not who commits crimes, but rather who is most susceptible to being subjected to processes of exclusion, criminalization, and punishment.

The most revealing finding is that this expansion of the prison system has not resulted in a proportional reduction in the violence plaguing the country. Between January and April 2026, 6,237 reports of domestic violence were registered , a 17.6% increase compared to the same period of the previous year. During those same months, 1,006 rape reports were recorded, equivalent to more than eight rapes reported every day. As of June 2026, 260 homicides had been registered . Adding to this is a particularly alarming statistic for women: femicides increased by 57% during the first months of the year, and attempted femicides also saw significant increases. Panama incarcerates its population as one of the most punitive nations on the planet, yet it continues to fail in preventing the violence that most affects women, girls, adolescents, and historically marginalized communities.

This forces us to ask whether security policy is geared toward preventing violence or simply managing its consequences through punishment, stigmatization, and incarceration. We can continue to ask ourselves whether the problem is the lack of punishment or the failure of a model incapable of addressing the root causes of inequality, racism, social exclusion, and lack of opportunity.

Overcrowded prisons have little success in terms of rehabilitation. On the contrary, they often become spaces where violence intensifies, living conditions deteriorate, and dynamics of exclusion are reinforced. Far from being effective spaces for social reintegration, they frequently operate as veritable schools for crime, within a system incapable of guaranteeing dignified conditions, access to education, healthcare, job training, and effective comprehensive support.

COIBA: The cruel return to total isolation

Resuming the transfer of prisoners to Coiba Island is a clear indication of the failure of the prison system. Panama is well aware of the history of island prisons and the serious human rights violations associated with these forms of punishment. Both Coiba and Cocos Island represent forms of isolation widely condemned by international human rights standards. Geographic isolation hinders access to legal counsel, limits family contact, restricts independent monitoring of detention conditions, and deepens the exclusion of those in state custody.

A person deprived of their liberty temporarily loses their freedom both within and outside the country, but they do not lose their humanity or their fundamental human rights. The State has the obligation to guarantee their physical and psychological integrity, access to healthcare, education, communication with their families, and conditions compatible with human dignity. Deprivation of liberty cannot become an additional form of punishment or a mechanism of dehumanization. Even less so can it lead to death while in the custody of the State, as has happened in recent days.

In our view, these decisions are illegitimate because, instead of promoting comprehensive policies for violence prevention, rehabilitation, and social reintegration, they perpetuate security models based on the public display of punishment, the humiliation of incarcerated individuals, and the sensationalization of confinement. Images of semi-naked men, seated on the floor and publicly displayed as symbols of authority and power, do not reflect institutional strength; they reflect a vision of security centered on control, progesterone, force, and punishment rather than on human dignity and fundamental rights.

It is unacceptable that, faced with shameful levels of social inequality, territorial exclusion, and structural racism, the State's primary response continues to be the hardening of criminal policies. Crime prevention requires a comprehensive and sustained intervention in historically excluded communities through quality education, decent employment, quality housing, mental health services, culture, sports, community strengthening, comprehensive protection of children and adolescents, and decisive policies to eradicate racism and discrimination.

From Espacio de Encuentro de Mujeres and Afroresistance we demand that the Panamanian State abandon the logic that more deprivation of liberty equals more security and move towards public policies focused on prevention, social justice, racial justice and the effective guarantee of human rights.

We call upon social organizations, feminist movements, Afro-descendant organizations, Indigenous peoples, families of incarcerated individuals, and human rights defenders to open a debate not only nationally but also regionally on the security model that prevails in our region. Afroresistencia offers this space to make this call through our monthly Regional Calls, creating a forum for critically analyzing the situation in other parts of the continent.

We cannot continue to normalize overcrowded prisons, thousands of people held without conviction, the overrepresentation of Afro-descendant and indigenous populations deprived of their liberty, and the return to prison isolation practices that history and international standards have shown to be incompatible with a democratic vision of human rights.

There will be no security as long as poverty is punished, racism is ignored, and exclusion continues to fill the country's prisons. Mass incarceration does not correct inequalities; it manages and perpetuates them.