Higher Education in a Women’s Correctional Facility in Panama: A Historical-Documentary Case Study of Didactic Adaptation, Gender Equity, and Human Development
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Abstract
This narrative-integrative review analyzes the historical evolution, didactic conditions, and formative contributions of the higher education program developed by the University of Panama at the Cecilia Orillac de Chiari Women’s Rehabilitation Center (CEFERE). The analysis integrates specialized literature on higher education in contexts of confinement, women’s prison education, gender and educational rights, together with institutional documents and descriptive enrollment and graduation records. Three questions guide the study: how the program originated and evolved; which institutional and didactic conditions characterized its implementation; and what descriptive evidence exists regarding access, academic continuity, and graduation. The documentary evidence indicates that preliminary interinstitutional coordination began in 2012 and university classes were officially inaugurated on September 2, 2013. Implementation required cooperation among the University of Panama, the Regional University Center of San Miguelito (CRUSAM), the Ministry of Government, and the General Directorate of the Penitentiary System, as well as progressive responses to limitations in infrastructure, enrollment procedures, teacher safety, academic interaction, and administrative coordination. Institutional records report 44 active students and 31 graduates by 2024, including 18 technical-degree and 13 bachelor’s-degree graduates; some women continued their studies at CRUSAM after release. The evidence supports conclusions about access, academic continuity, formal credentialing, and human-capacity development, but does not permit causal claims concerning employment, recidivism, or long-term social reintegration. The article contributes a contextually grounded framework connecting historical development, gender-equitable access, didactic adaptation, professional formation, and human development.