Our History

The Prison Ombudsman’s National Office (PPN for its acronym in Spanish) was created by the Legislative Branch by Decree Number 1598 on 29th July in 1993. Its main purpose was to protect rapidly, efficiently and with no traditional methods, the human rights of the people deprived of liberty that were in the scope of the Federal Penitentiary Regime.

Technically, this institution has been designed as a “Sectorial Ombudsman” within the Executive Branch whose aim was to control the administration as regards the custody of people under arrest.

The autonomy of the Executive Branch was an unresolved matter, because of the controlling role it has, related to Federal Penitentiary Service, which depends on the Ministry of Justice. After ten years of existence, the Prison Ombudsman’s Office was inserted in Legislative Branch by means of Law 25.875 (Official Bulletin 01/22/2004). 

With the new legal context, this Administration purpose is still to establish a strict control process for the penitentiary administrative activity in order to secure that the enforcement of the sentence may perform with full respect of the fundamental rights of those people who are under arrest.