LACK OF SERVICE FOR SUICIDES IN PRISONS

Abstract

This article analyzes State liability for suicides in prisons from an egalitarian perspective. The argument used by the Chilean courts of justice only considers the existence of suicidal tendency of the inmates to compensate for the damages suffered by their families. This is problematic because the detriment of cognitive abilities is not made visible when disciplinary sanctions are applied to people who are serving a criminal sanction. To resolve this difficulty, the research is divided into three parts. First, it justifies the application of the penitentiary standard of care in the different damages scenarios in prisons. Second, it specifies the obligations of the Penitentiary Administration to determine which interventions are justified in serious self-harm. Third, it criticizes the lack of argumentative exhaustiveness of judicial decisions to resolve cases other than those that identify suicidal tendencies. Finally, the article concludes that cases of lack of service for suicides must be resolved through a differentiated standard of diligence that contemplates those situations in which inmates suffer cognitive detriment during the accomplishment of their sentence.