Título I. Disposiciones preliminares

This Law regulates the National Penitentiary System, matters relating to pretrial detention centers and centers for serving sentences for the execution of penalties.

The Penitentiary System shall be directed toward the social readaptation and reeducation of persons deprived of liberty and shall comply with the norms assigned to it by the Political Constitution of the Republic, the international conventions and treaties in matters of human rights to which Guatemala is a party, as well as the provisions of other ordinary laws.

The Penitentiary System has as its purposes:

a)To maintain the custody and security of incarcerated persons to safeguard society; and,

b)To provide incarcerated persons with favorable conditions for their education and readaptation to society, which enables them to achieve personal development during service of the sentence and subsequently reintegrate into society.

For purposes of this law, any person deprived of liberty by application of preventive detention or serving of a sentence is called a male inmate or female inmate.

All penitentiary policy and activity shall be conducted with the guarantees and within the limits established by the Political Constitution of the Republic, the international treaties and agreements ratified by Guatemala, this Law, and the regulations issued in accordance therewith and judicial judgments. No one may enter a penal center, as a detainee, without an order of a competent judge. Acts that violate these limits shall be null and their authors shall incur liability in accordance with the legislation in force. No public official may restrict a fundamental right or impose a disciplinary measure, if such restriction or sanction is not previously regulated by law.

For no motive or factor shall discriminatory acts be carried out against incarcerated persons. Measures applied in accordance with the law and tending exclusively to protect the rights and special condition of women, in particular pregnant women and nursing mothers, sick persons and those suffering from any physical impairment, shall not be considered discriminatory. Nor shall the act of separating incarcerated persons within detention or sentence-execution centers by reason of age, background and liability for intentional and negligent crimes be considered discriminatory. As well as for reasons of security for themselves or for third parties.

All incarcerated persons shall retain the rights established in the in general, any other activity that fosters the of incarcerated persons suffering from diseases Political Constitution of the Republic, agreements and international treaties and other laws and regulations, except those that are incompatible with the object of their detention, those that the Political Constitution of the Republic itself restricts to them by reason of their legal situation and those that have been affected by final judgment. Disciplinary measures shall not contain more restrictions than those necessary to preserve security and order.

Every penalty shall be executed under the strict control of the Execution Judge, who shall enforce the decisions of the judgment, as well as the proper compliance with the penitentiary regime. In the case of persons subject to pretrial detention, they shall be at the disposal of the respective judges, in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure. Control of the general conditions of the centers for deprivation of liberty shall be under the responsibility of the Director General of the Penitentiary System, with due supervision by the competent judge, ensuring dignified conditions and the rights inherent to the human being.

The transfer of incarcerated persons from one center to another or to a medical care center may only be authorized by the competent judge in fully justified cases. In an emergency situation, the Directorate General of the Penitentiary System may order such transfers, immediately informing the corresponding judge, who shall finally decide.

Prior to deciding the transfers of inmates, the execution judge shall grant a hearing of five days to the Directorate General of the Penitentiary System so that it may state its opinion on the advisability thereof.

Likewise, the judge shall consider the rules relating to the progressive regime and the disciplinary system established in this Law.

In any case, transfers shall be notified to the interested parties.

It is mandatory to guarantee the right to communication in the incarcerated persons' own language.

Every incarcerated person shall be treated with the respect deserved by the dignity inherent in every human being. The infliction on incarcerated persons of physical, psychological or moral torture, coercion or labor incompatible with their physical condition, actions degrading to their dignity or making them victims of exactions, as well as subjecting them to scientific experiments, is strictly prohibited.

For the fulfillment of its purposes, the directing bodies of the Penitentiary System shall promote collaboration and active participation by legally recognized entities that carry out social, sports, religious, educational activities that foster penitentiary work and rehabilitation, reeducation and readaptation of the incarcerated person during preventive imprisonment or the execution of the penalty, provided that there is no interference with the administrative function of the Penitentiary System.