Parole in the chilean criminal justice system. Performance and changes made by law 321

Abstract

In January 2019, through the enactment of the Law 21.124 the parole rules in the Chilean criminal justice system were modified. The purpose of this article is to analyze the usefulness of these changes for crime prevention, reentry, and social reintegration in the Chilean context. To achieve that goal, this article includes a systematization of the parole functions in criminal justice systems, describing the characteristics of this mechanism in comparative experiences. The article analyses the regulation and functioning of parole in Chile until 2018, and the main modifications to the current Decree- Law 321 made by the Law 21.124. It is concluded that the incorporation of psychosocial reports with mandatory references to risk factors as a legal requirement to qualify for the benefit, as well as the regulation of parole officers bound to follow up and make psychosocial intervention to the beneficiaries, are elements that can contribute to crime prevention and social reintegration. Moreover, several problems to increase the number of parolees are identified. Among these problems, it possible to highlight the unjustified incorporation of some felonies into the exclusión catalog (article 3 of the Law), the rule that allows to apply retroactively the application requirements (article 9 of the Law), the lack of adequacy of conduct qualification rules, and an inadequate estimation of the number of future parolees and intervention necessities prior to the generation of the executive order of the Law 21.124.