The Senate approved today the bill that modifies the Federal Criminal Procedural Code to end the "revolving door" model for criminals in Justice and turned it into law, as it had received half approval from the Chamber of Deputies. The initiative was approved in general with 67 positive votes, without negative votes or abstentions.
The project establishes that if someone is charged and commits a new crime, detention will proceed, by changing the concept of recidivism to reiteration to eliminate the so-called "revolving door." The discussion takes place at a time when cases of insecurity have intensified and amid the controversy between President Javier Milei and provincial governor Axel Kicillof over the increase in crimes in the suburbs.
The reform to Article 17 of the Procedural Code states that "restrictive measures of liberty may only be based on the existence of a real danger of flight, obstruction of the investigation, or criminal reiteration." In addition, it will be possible to add sentences from several courts up to a maximum of 50 years in prison, and sentences imposed for crimes committed by minors under 18 or where there was amnesty will not be considered for recidivism.
Libertarian senator and president of the Justice and Criminal Affairs Committee, Juan Carlos Pagotto, who was the reporting member of the project, argued: "The criminal justice system is overwhelmed, we need to reform Justice, build new prisons, and institutions that receive minors to prevent them from falling into criminal behavior, and we need to ensure that release norms are followed."
Regarding the senator from Union for the Fatherland, Oscar Parrilli (Neuquén), although he criticized some articles of the project, he generally supported it: "We are going back to legislation that existed previously, we agree, but we will vote positively on 2 articles in general and then we will vote against the rest of the articles that establish reiteration."
In conclusion, the senator and head of the libertarian bloc, Ezequiel Atauche (Jujuy), supported the project: "We cannot continue to allow the revolving door, criminals who go in and out. If today we listen to Argentines, then we should approve this law on recidivism and reiteration in crime."
