There are 53 prisons in Bolivia which incarcerate around 8,700 people as of 2010. The prisons are managed by the Penitentiary Regime Directorate (Spanish: Dirección de Régimen Penintenciario). There are 17 prisons in departmental capital cities and 36 provincial prisons. According to the Defensor del Pueblo and a source in the Directorate, approximately three-quarters of prisoners have yet to receive their sentences, and are either awaiting trial, or presently on trial; the Defensor del Pueblo considers these people deprived of their right to liberty. Overcrowding is at a serious level, with the total prison population at three times the capacity of the prisons. An investigative survey by the Defensor del Pueblo of 20 rural prisons found that they lack the basic infrastructure necessary to function humanely.
Urban prisons include San Pedro Prison and Chonchocoro Prison in La Paz, and San Sebastian Prison in Cochabamba and Palmasola Prison in Santa Cruz.