This article deals with the Unconstitutional State of Affairs in the face of the crisis of the Colombian Penitentiary and Prison System, declared twice (1998 and 2013) by its Constitutional Court. Some measures that could be effective to face the problem of prison overcrowding are also proposed. The article includes a review of the international and national background of this legal institution and the presentation of the figures that account for this humanitarian catastrophe that has been occurring in the Andean country for many years. With the use of an analytical-descriptive methodology, it can be concluded that despite the fact that in the last 10 years the decrease in the prison population in the country is evident, there is still a massive violation of the fundamental rights of this population group and the declaration of the The Unconstitutional State of Affairs in Colombia was useful, but insufficient to address this problem. © Este é um artigo de acesso aberto, licenciado por Creative Commons Atribuição 4.0 Internacional (CC BY 4.0), sendo permitidas reprodução, adaptação e distribuição desde que o autor e a fonte originais sejam creditados.