This Tuesday, in the Chamber of Deputies, the ruling party and the PRO aim to sign a report to reduce the age of criminal responsibility from 16 to 14 years in cases of serious crimes. Libertad Avanza (LLA) along with its allies from macrismo and the UCR will seek to advance this initiative, which had been postponed last week due to other events in the legislative arena.
The plan of the ruling party is to have the report signed on Tuesday in order to discuss it before the end of May. The president of the Penal Legislation Commission, Laura Rodríguez Machado, has called a meeting for this purpose with the intention of achieving maximum consensus around the proposal.
The project must be discussed by the commissions of Penal Legislation and Justice, Family, and Budget, led by Manuel Quintar (LLA), Roxana Reyes (UCR), and José Luis Espert (LLA), respectively. It is expected that the ruling party will have the support of deputies from PRO, UCR, the Civic Coalition, and Federal Innovation, as well as sectors of Federal Encounter and the Renovation Front.
The reduction of criminal responsibility also has the support of deputies close to Sergio Massa, leader of the Renovation Front. The project has been discussed in several meetings during last year and this one, with significant advances in the proposals presented.
Among the relevant points of the proposal is that the maximum penalty for criminally responsible minors be 20 years in prison, without the possibility of life imprisonment. The creation of a supervisor figure is also proposed to guide the young offender in their reintegration process.
Moreover, the implementation of educational programs, citizenship training, sports, and medical treatments when necessary for reintegration into society is proposed. The review of the sentence at two-thirds of the sentence served to allow the remainder at home and the creation of adequate spaces for serving the sentence are other points contemplated in the project. Guillermo Francos, Chief of Cabinet, has emphasized the importance of advancing this legislative initiative to establish greater coherence in the treatment of juvenile offenders.
