Peravia.- The Ministry of Housing, Habitat and Buildings (MIVHED) held the groundbreaking ceremony this Thursday for the construction of the Matanzas-Las Tablas Correction and Rehabilitation Center (CCR) in Baní, a project that will have the capacity to house more than 800 people deprived of liberty and is part of the transformation process of the Dominican penitentiary system.
During the event, the Minister of Housing, Habitat and Buildings, Víctor “Ito” Bisonó, stated that the prison reform promoted by the Government requires not only changes in the management of the system, but also modern infrastructure that contributes to the rehabilitation and social reintegration of inmates.
“Whoever has committed a crime must answer to justice, but the State also has the responsibility to create the conditions so that this person can study, learn a trade, develop discipline, and, when they have served their sentence, return to society with greater opportunities for reintegration,” the official stated.
The new penitentiary center will feature an infrastructure of 24,283.80 square meters of construction, built on a plot of 80,000 square meters, and will be designed under the model of correction, education, and rehabilitation.
The project will include accommodation buildings, maximum and medium security cells, administrative areas, classrooms for training, a library, a dining hall, vocational workshops, conjugal cells, and spaces designated for productive and recreational activities.
You can also read: CONANI inaugurates municipal office in Baní
Among the facilities are also basketball courts, a farm for raising rabbits and chickens, agricultural areas, kennels, and a workshop building, with the purpose of offering job training opportunities to people deprived of their liberty.
More Read
Regarding security, the facility will have a main guardhouse, six watchtowers, a customs area, a power plant, a cistern, a waste storage shed, and other complementary service areas. Likewise, it will have 96 parking spaces for private vehicles, service vehicles, and buses.
The Director General of Penitentiary and Correctional Services, Roberto Santana, highlighted that the location of the new center will contribute to the tranquility of the population of Peravia and noted that the penitentiary model contemplates the incorporation of inmates into work activities as part of their rehabilitation process.
With this project, there are now seven correction and rehabilitation centers initiated by the MIVHED during the current administration, including those in Bonao, Hato Mayor, Cotuí, Santiago Rodríguez, Anamuya, and El Seibo. The institution also reported that in the coming weeks, construction will begin on new facilities in Pedernales, Bahoruco, and Barahona, as part of the plan to strengthen the capacity and modernization of the national penitentiary system.
