As families in Costa Rica prepare to celebrate one of their most important holidays, inmates in the country’s three correctional custody institutions for women are reflecting on what August 15^th used to mean prior to their incarceration. These women, many of whom are single parents, are part of Costa Rica’s growing inmate population. They will spend Mother’s Day deprived of freedom.

There will be special activities to celebrate the day. Since Mother’s Day in Costa Rica coincides with the Holy Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, inmates will be able to attend Mass. There will be visits buy their children and families, as well as entertainment. Last year, for example, 200 mothers at a metropolitan detention center were treated to a performance by a theater and dance troupe. This year, department store Cemaco will be distributing free beauty care items to the salons of the country’s three female prisons. Cosmetology is a popular trade learned by imprisoned women in Costa Rica, and thus Cemaco will also distribute supplies for women to set up their own living room or garage beauty salons upon their release.

As expected, the majority of people who are under the custody of Costa Rica’s Ministry of Justice are drug offenders. In fact, 135 women serving sentences at El Buen Pastor (The Good Shepherd) in San Rafael of Desamparados are there because they tried to smuggle drugs into jail. According to online news daily CRHoy.com, 587 out of 839 female inmates at the Good Shepherd prison are drug offenders.

A Growing Problem

In Costa Rica, the Department of Social Adaptation is analyzing the growing involvement of women from Costa Rica into the world of drug trafficking. What they are finding out is that familial ties are often the reason women end up in prison. Criminal defense attorneys are calling upon legislators and prison officials to recognize the void left in society when women are incarcerated, and to also find a way to ameliorate the situation.

One proposal suggested by a criminal law firm is to sentence drug offenders who are mothers to house arrest with the use of GPS devices worn as anklets, and to also issue injunctions to prevent them from visiting detention centers and prisons -unless an imprisoned relative is in terminal condition.

A recent editorial in national tabloid newspaper Diario Extra explained that about 1,000 women are incarcerated in Costa Rica, which represents less than six percent of the 13,000 total inmates in the nation. The problem is that our country has never been prepared to accommodate a large prison population, which is currently causing overcrowding and warehousing conditions. Supporters of the United States-led War on Drugs claim that increasing arrests and convictions are signs of victory since they take people and drugs off the streets, but Costa Rica’s Department of Social Adaptation is not so sure.

The National Assembly recently passed a measure that will reduce prison sentences for drug offenders in Costa Rica, but Social Adaptation is ready to hear about alternative programs that actually allow for effective reintegration to society, something that is not so easily accomplished behind bars.

As previously published in the Costa Rica Star, President Laura Chinchilla is a supporter of decriminalization of drugs to a certain extent. When she mentioned that she agreed with President Otto Perez Molina, her Guatemalan counterpart, on the issue that the War on Drugs has been a bloody mess, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden rushed to meet with him and defend prohibition. In Central America, President Perez has found support in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Belize to an extent, but countries that receive considerably military aid from the U.S. -Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama- are naturally opposed to legalizing personal consumption of drugs such as marijuana in the region.

In the meantime, mothers who are first-time drug offenders in Costa Rica will spend their special day behind bars.