On Tuesday morning, legislator Óscar López visited La Reforma prison, where he is seeking support so that alimony prisoners can go out to work during the day and return to sleep at night.
We are getting to know the experiences of this type prisoners. The project aims to physically constraint them only at night, so they can look for a job during the day to care for their children and not be in a limbo, with no production,”
said the lawmaker, who also criticized that alimony freezes during prison time and claims there must be other alternatives before prison.
According to statistics, about 300 people are imprisoned for alimony, but López said
there are like 10,000 people in hiding, because there are 100 applications a day only in the court of Guadalupe.”
The project is currently in the Committee on Legal Affairs and also includes a negotiation between the parties and the judge to set the amount, since there have been cases in which the amounts look disproportionate.
In addition, it incorporates the creation of an employment list to provide jobs, rather than having the State pay 33 thousand colones per day for each prisoner.
Responsible dads who have no work, should not be in jail as if they were criminals. I’m not helping child molesters or perpetrators, but responsible parents who are unemployed,”
said López.