[5] In 1954, in Guayaquil, President José María Velasco Ibarra decided to undertake the construction of the most ambitious prison project in the country to date, thanks to the income obtained from the collection of export tax.

To do this, he asked the Argentine Roberto Pettinato for advice, who had been in charge of the National Directorate of Penal Institutes of Argentina for seven years and who received permission from President Juan Perón to travel to Ecuador and help with the project.

According to Pettinato's statements to the press, the new prison would focus on rehabilitating inmates and not punishing them, so it would have football and basketball fields, as well as cells with natural light and a school with an auditorium.

The final location of the jail was chosen because it was far enough from the city (16 km (9.9 mi) apart at that time) and because it had fertile land suitable for cultivation and quick access to the Daule River.

[9] In December 2013, President Rafael Correa began a process of partial demolition and reconstruction of the penitentiary,[10] with ten new pavilions that were inaugurated in 2015 and added to two that were not demolished.