There are currently 105,148 people imprisoned in Colombia; of these, 777 are indigenous. Although this may seem a small number (especially when compared with the disproportional presence of indigenous people in countries such as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand), their imprisonment shows the persistence of colonial practices within the predominant legal discourse that undermine the indigenous peoples’ right to self-government. However, they also reveal a process of hybridization of punishment, where traditional punishments (whipping) and Western forms of punishment (jailing) meet and transform each other, leading to different forms of punishment—and resistance. This article studies how some of the most representative indigenous communities in Colombia have appropriated prison as a form of punishment, the factors that have influenced this process, and its possible outcomes.
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