At the beginning of 2024, the online database World Prison Brief (WPB) specified that Cuba was the country with the second most incarcerated people, only surpassed by El Salvador.

In Cuban penal centers, at least 90,000 prisoners remain, according to information provided by Prisoners Defenders to WPB in 2020. According to Prisoners Defenders, there are approximately 794 prisoners for every 100,000 inhabitants in Cuba.

Several organizations have denounced the poor conditions in Cuban prisons. The latest update from the Cuban Prisons Documentation Center program on the situation in prisons highlights poor nutrition, proliferation of diseases, lack of medical attention, torture, and human rights violations.

The Cuba Black Liberation collective launched the campaign “Stop Criminalization.” The goal is to create a space for dialogue and learning within Cuban civil society about people deprived of liberty, penal abolitionism, and transformative and restorative justice.

The initiative can be found on the collective’s social networks and aims to encourage reflection on the situation of inmates and explore alternatives to the current Cuban penal system.

In statements to El Toque, the collective explained that one of the key objectives is “to guide and support families, friends, and the community in general regarding the situation of people deprived of liberty, providing information and tools considering the needs of these people.”

The collective seeks to promote learning, provide tools, and recommendations about the situation of incarcerated people, where families and the community play a significant role.

The campaign revolves around several areas. The first is the recovery of the humanistic vision concerning people deprived of liberty. For this, they have created the hashtag #TheyArePeople and aim to call on citizens, families, and children of the prisoners to publicly recognize that “they are people, regardless of the mistakes they have made. They are people on this earth who can contribute —and do contribute— to society, even while deprived of liberty.”

Another area is demystifying stereotypes related to racism and how structural racism stimulates prejudices affecting black people, who make up a large portion of the Cuban prison population.

The campaign addresses phenomena such as fear of black people and racial profiling of people deprived of liberty in Cuba.

According to the collective, fear of black people translates into certain attitudes and prejudices reproduced daily in Cuba because “it is believed that black people are more violent and strong.”

Examples associated with fear of black people include crossing the street if a black person is behind you or places reserving the right to refuse entry to black people because they are considered more violent and likely to cause conflicts.

“There are myths around black people, like Antonio Maceo, considered braver because he was black. Many men working in security jobs are also black because it is believed they have the power to neutralize others,” emphasized Cuba Black Liberation.

Regarding racial profiling, the collective noted that it is not only applied to people deprived of liberty in Cuba.

“In general, racial profiling is associated with the prison system and punishment and establishes that certain people are more likely to commit crimes because of their skin color, accent, physical appearance, and clothing. Therefore, these people are detained more frequently, searched on the street, and interrogated. In Cuba, this happens a lot with black people or those with an eastern Cuban accent, as well as with black or mixed-race women in tourist areas,” they explained.

The campaign also focuses on “supporting people deprived of liberty” and providing resources and tools to families and former inmates.

Cuba Black Liberation wants to draw attention specifically to the history of the criminalization of racialized or black people in Cuba and their current reality.

Penal Abolitionism and Restorative Justice

Penal abolitionism is a criminological trend advocating the elimination of punitive power. According to this perspective, the penal system does not resolve conflicts, is inhumane in all forms, generates violence, and perpetuates social inequalities.

Cuba Black Liberation believes that the prison and punitive system has failed, and “many people leave prison with violence-based learnings.”

The group argues that violent behaviors are reproduced in prisons, and existence there is a constant struggle for survival. Additionally, there are high recidivism rates, meaning inmates or former inmates commit crimes again.

“What punitivism does is gather these people and put them in a place generally distant from cities, fenced, guarded by military bodies, where fundamental rights are violated in all kinds of ways,” the collective said.

For this reason, they defend the need for another approach and path to justice. They want to open the conversation in Cuba about penal abolitionism and restorative justice because debates about the challenges of the penal system and other forms of justice are very primary in the country.

The collective maintains that in a world “without prisons and without punitivism” —as proposed by penal abolitionism— the person who has harmed or committed a crime “could repair their victims much more effectively.” For this, the community and those who inflicted harm must play a leading role.

However, a system of this type is not without challenges. Cuba Black Liberation believes penal abolitionism faces the challenge of getting society to understand that “punishment has never been and is not the solution to social problems” and that another way of reparation must be considered.

“The biggest challenge is for the offended and harmed people to think of another possibility of being repaired, not the death penalty or prison, which does not repair or bring back a deceased loved one. Institutions must support creating an environment that fosters restoration,” they emphasized.

One possibility would be restorative justice, although for many victims, the penal route may also be a form of reparation.

Restorative justice emerged in the 1970s as an alternative approach to traditional punitivism, offering a victim-centered and reparative model.

Through mediation and dialogue, it seeks to have those responsible work to repair the damage caused to the victim, recognizing them as such and seeking a way to compensate or mitigate the negative impact on their life and the community.

Within restorative justice, there are ways to compensate the aggrieved (apologies, public retractions, therapy, or financial reimbursement).

The debate on the approach remains open and still raises doubts and questions. In the 1990s, countries in North America, as well as Spain and Belgium, took the first steps towards this type of justice.

In Latin America, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, and some Argentine provinces have specific legislation on the matter.

The Cuba Black Liberation collective expresses its interest in “starting to talk about these issues because penal abolitionism is not discussed in Cuba.” They emphasize that “when looking at the anti-racism being done in Cuba right now, penal abolitionism is present in very few groups as a way of thinking and practicing anti-racism.”

Cuba Black Liberation comprises “Cuban queer black people who, from an abolitionist and anti-imperialist perspective,” advocate inside and outside of Cuba, “some affiliated with black liberation groups.”

This article was translated into English from the original in Spanish.