Disciplina penitenciaria y derechos : sujeción especial versus vulnerabilidad.

Abstract

This essay analyzes the admissibility of a rigorous prison disciplinary regime that continues to recognize persons deprived of liberty as rights-bearing subjects. The issue arises from previous episodes of violence within prisons, institutional weakening, and the capacity of criminal organizations to extend their activities from within detention facilities. Accordingly, the thesis developed in this essay maintains that prison discipline is compatible with a constitutional State governed by the rule of law, provided that it is grounded in a constitutionally endorsed special relationship of subjection, rather than in a mere logic of unrestricted availability of incarcerated persons before the prison administration. Through a legal-analytical methodology based on Ecuadorian legislation and national and international case law, the essay distinguishes between priority attention, contextual vulnerability, and inherent vulnerability. On this basis, four main issues are developed: the principle of legality and statutory reservation in prison disciplinary matters, the distinction between urgent security measures and disciplinary sanctions, the delimitation of admissible and problematic sanctions as well as prohibited measures, and the required density of due process within the prison system.