United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Central America and the Caribbean

Prison Staff receives Training on Adversarial Criminal Justice System

Under the Project PANZ59 "Consolidating prison reform improvements in Panama", with the support of the US Embassy in Panama, UNODC, the Prison Training Academy and the Ministry of Government organized a training workshop on the adversarial criminal justice system for 90 prison staff, including personnel of prisons´ technical boards, Heads of Departments of the Directorate General of Prisons and Directors of prisons in the provinces of Colon, Panama and West Panama.

The workshop, held between August 8 ^th and 13 ^th, was provided by UNODC consultant José Barahona, Expert in adversarial criminal justice system, and Luis Quintero, public officer of the Directorate General of Prisons. Among the topics covered were the principles of this penal system, phases, intervening parties, execution of sentences and judges of penal execution.

This training has been of vital importance due to the prompt implementation of the new criminal justice system in the First Judicial District, which includes the provinces of Panama, Colon, Darien and the region of San Blas, and its significant impact on prison work.