Regulation classifies prisoners by risk and orders their relocation within 90 days

The Ministry of the Interior issued the Regulation for the Classification of Persons Deprived of Liberty, which divides the prison population into four risk levels and orders the relocation of each inmate to the center, stage, pavilion, and cell corresponding to their security level. The measure is contained in Resolution No. OT-SNRS-2026-0002-R-EXQ, published in Official Registry No. 378 on Monday, September 28, 2026, and its execution plan must begin within a maximum period of 90 days.

The legal framework and the issuing body

The resolution was signed in Quito on September 12, 2026, by John Reimberg Oviedo, in his capacity as Minister of the Interior and highest authority of the Technical Body of the National Social Rehabilitation System. The regulation develops the Organic Reformatory Law for the Strengthening of the Penitentiary System, published in the Fourth Supplement of Official Registry No. 275 on April 29, 2026, which incorporated article 694-A into the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code and created Title VI on Special Penitentiary Regime.

The norm also invokes the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Mandela Rules), particularly Rule 93, and the Organic Law on the Protection of Personal Data. Its scope of application binds the Technical Body, the National Service for the Comprehensive Care of Adults Deprived of Liberty and Juvenile Offenders (SNAI), center authorities, the Penitentiary Security and Surveillance Corps, and technical teams; it does not apply to juvenile offenders.

Four risk levels and four security levels

Article 9 establishes individual classification into the following levels:

• High risk with application of the Special Penitentiary Regime.
• High risk.
• Medium risk.
• Low risk.

Each level corresponds to a security level (Article 16): maximum security with Special Penitentiary Regime, maximum security, medium security, and minimum security. The evaluation is based on six dimensions: legal-penal, criminal linkage, security and intelligence, behavioral and disciplinary, individual dangerousness, and dynamic risk. The decision is the responsibility of the Technical Body and its execution corresponds to SNAI; in the Ordinary Regime, classification is dynamic and reviewable, while the reclassification of a high-risk person may not occur before three years from the initial classification.

Implementation deadlines

The regulation sets a staggered calendar counted from its entry into force:

• 30 days for the Technical Body to issue the technical sheet format and the initial classification and reclassification formats.
• 60 days for the SNAI to implement the inputs and the classification module in the penitentiary management computer system.
• 90 days to start the phased execution plan for the classification of the entire prison population.

Every person entering the system will undergo initial classification upon receipt of the incarceration warrant and will remain in a transitional evaluation area for a maximum of eight days. The center’s multidisciplinary technical team will be composed of professionals in Psychology, Social Work, and Law.

Maximum Control and Information Confidentiality

The Special Penitentiary Regime is defined as the maximum control modality, reserved for those who represent a serious threat to penitentiary security, public security, or internal order. Its measures include reinforced control, penitentiary separation, communications and visits with technical defenders exclusively via telematics, general restriction of family visits, technological supervision, reinforced custody, and rotation of penitentiary personnel.

Information regarding classification may be classified as reserved or secret, and its disclosure will be prohibited even after the public servant ceases their functions. The intervening officials must sign confidentiality agreements.

The regulation comes into effect upon its signing, without prejudice to its publication in the Official Registry. Its application extends to the entire prison population of the country and reorganizes risk management in deprivation of liberty centers, with uniform technical criteria for classification, separation, location, and reclassification.

Source: Official Registry No. 378, Monday, September 28, 2026, Section I (Executive Function), p. 29 (official reference: OT-SNRS-2026-0002-R-EXQ).