Buenos Aires, February 13 (NA) — Following the approval in the lower house, the La Libertad Avanza (LLA) bloc will seek to pass the new Juvenile Penal Regime in the Senate. The bill sets to lower the age of criminal responsibility in Argentina from 16 to 14 years. According to the Argentine News Agency, the government's goal is to advance the discussion in the chamber on February 26. The proposal pushed by the ruling coalition plans to reform a law from the dictatorship era and will feature a special regime for minors, as it proposes from lesser sanctions up to 15 years in prison for serious crimes. This law will not allow for life imprisonment and stipulates that minors will have to serve their sentence in a special place, separate from adult criminals. One of the issues that generated the most debate was funding, and even Deputy Maximiliano Ferraro proposed a mechanism for direct funding, but it was rejected by the ruling coalition, which insisted on its proposal to sign agreements between the Nation and the Provinces. The ruling coalition proposes a range of sanctions or alternative punishments to deprivation of liberty, establishes that minors must not be mixed with adults in places of detention, and includes complementary measures for resocialization. For crimes with sentences of less than 3 years, prison sentences are ruled out, while for sentences between 3 and 10 years linked to crimes that have not caused death or serious injuries, other types of sanctions with a social and educational focus are prioritized.
