Veteran political scientist and prison reform advocate Roberto Santana Sánchez has formally taken charge of the Dominican Republic’s correctional system, immediately spearheading a major international cooperation agreement aimed at dramatically reducing the country’s high rate of pre-trial detainees.
Santana, the former rector of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) and current head of the National Office to Support Penitentiary Reform (Onaprep), began his formal duties as director general of Penitentiary and Correctional Services (DGSPC). The transition, overseen by Deputy Attorney General Rodolfo Espiñeira Ceballos, is viewed as a critical step toward strengthening the system before its planned transfer to the new Ministry of Justice. Santana committed to continuing his lifelong efforts to improve the national penitentiary system. Previously, the prisons office fell under the jurisdiction of the Attorney General Office.
A key first action under Santana’s tenure was the signing of a strategic international cooperation agreement with the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham University School of Law in the United States.
The three-year pact establishes a framework for collaboration through joint research, training programs, academic exchange, and technical assistance. Its overarching goals are to enhance the legal, technical, and humanitarian training of justice personnel, foster penitentiary reform, and strengthen human rights protections for people deprived of liberty.
The most ambitious objective is to significantly reduce the index of pre-trial detention (prisión preventiva), a pervasive issue in the Dominican Republic’s correctional facilities. The agreement is explicitly modeled on the successful experience of Ghana, which managed to reduce its rate of non-sentenced people in jail from an alarming 68% to less than 15% in just three years.
Santana stated that the agreement represents “a firm step towards a more dignified, efficient, and rehabilitation-centered penitentiary system.”
Santana brings extensive experience to the role, having previously led the installation of the New Model of Penitentiary Management, which operated from 2003 to 2016. He is also the driving force behind the creation of the Institute of Higher Specialized Studies for Penitentiary and Correctional Studies (ISEEPENC). Internationally, Santana has served as a consultant on public policy and criminal justice for the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU), participating in the design of penitentiary schools and policies across multiple Latin American countries.
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Attorney General Office
Noticias SIN
28 October 2025