What bills exist in the National Assembly to alleviate the prison crisis in Ecuador?

The latest murders registered in the Litoral Penitentiary turn their gaze to the National Assembly on its legislative contribution to the prison crisis, which exceeds the expectations of a current state of exception and which was implemented as a palliative.

The President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, in the last week, announced that he will refer several reforms to the Comprehensive Organic Penal Code (COIP) to the National Assembly, focused on security, one of them is to extend the degree of authorship to the heads of organizations criminals operating inside prisons.

But at the legislative level, three commissions have several bills in their drawers, and in order to dust them off and speed up their approval, the Legislative Administration Council (CAL) classified as a high priority the treatment of all proposals related to State security and citizen security. , and social rehabilitation that are in the commissions of Justice, Integral Security and Constitutional Guarantees. For this, in seven days the chairmen of the tables must present a work plan.

National Assembly will prioritize the processing of laws on citizen security and social rehabilitation

In the Justice Commission of the National Assembly there are at least 37 bills that relate to reforms to the COIP, of which five refer to legislation on preventive detention, precautionary measures, house arrest, social rehabilitation, rights and guarantees of a person deprived of liberty (PPL), conditional suspension of the sentence and tougher sentences for repeat offenders.

The characteristic is that none of these proposals has started its process and there is even less a report for the first debate.

The president of the Justice Commission, Alejandro Jaramillo (ID), considers that there are already laws and that the COIP has been reformed several times and even excessively, and that the changes allow us to face the prison issue.

The Executive, he adds, aims badly by announcing a new law when it should focus on social rehabilitation tasks, training for prison guides, infrastructure and technology. And that the Assembly has to focus on the inspection of the Judicial Council, with which it can determine how many cases of PPL are without sentence and on the obstacles that justice operators put in place.

This thesis of supervising the justice sector is shared by the legislator Yajaira Urresta, of the UNES movement, because it will allow determining the degree of responsibility in the murders registered in the prisons, for which she will propose that the Ombudsman’s Office be summoned to the table, which It must manage the reparation of the relatives of those victims who died in the middle of the massacre and who were for minor crimes.

Urresta also suggests that the Attorney General of the State, Diana Salazar, and the president of the Judicial Council, María del Carmen Maldonado, be invited to answer why preventive prisons constitute a legal regulation of use and not a probable investigation.

Five projects on the Justice table

In the Legislature’s Justice commission there are five projects that propose reforms to the COIP, and these were entered eight years ago and have not been processed. The last one that was presented was in December 2020 and refers to the application of precautionary measures.

They identify 49 of 62 bodies of inmates murdered in the Litoral Penitentiary

Instead, the Comprehensive Security and Constitutional Guarantees commissions began to work on gathering information on the projects they have on social security and rehabilitation. The information is not yet ready, its collaborators say it is under construction.

The legislator Ronny Aleaga (UNES), proponent of the reform on the application of precautionary measures, comments that his project will contribute to reduce overcrowding in prisons, since one of the problems that occurs in the deprivation of liberty centers is the abuse and excess in the use of preventive detention of an investigated for an alleged crime.

He explains that when he proposed his project, in December 2020, there was an overcrowding of 42%, where there were cases of people detained for non-payment of alimony. The use of a shackle may be the alternative, but the problem is that the State does not have the shackles, he maintains, but there are also measures such as periodic presentations to the prosecution.

The proposal is that the preventive detention measure be applied as a last resort, because in the massacre at the Litoral Penitentiary, Aleaga points out, there were cases of people who were detained for food, but were killed.

What is proposed in the reform is that preventive detention should not be applied for minor crimes, in cases such as a traffic accident where there are no victims, people for alimony, people for financial reasons. The exception would be in recidivism.

Precautionary measures

Initiative: Assemblyman Ronny Aleaga (UNES), presented on 12-02-2020, qualified by CAL on March 10, 2021.

It proposes to introduce changes to five articles of the COIP, regarding contradictions that exist in the code on the application of precautionary measures, since Article 522 provides that the judge may impose detention as a precautionary measure to ensure the presence of the processed person, while that article 530, on the contrary, mandates that the figure of detention may be ordered by the judge for investigative purposes.

Preventive prison

Initiative: Former Assemblyman Fabricio Villamar (NOW), 03-12-2020, qualified by CAL on April 8, 2020.

It proposes to reform article 537 of the COIP, where it is determined that preventive detention may be replaced by house arrest and the use of the electronic surveillance device when the person is a woman who has children under 12 years of age in her care. or people with disabilities. The draft states that preventive detention must always be understood from the exceptionality and from the essential principle of the presumption of innocence.

Rehabilitation system

Initiative: Former Assemblyman Ana Belén Marín (PAIS), 04-24-2019, qualified by CAL on July 8, 2019.

Aimed at recovering dignified living conditions and the process of social rehabilitation and reintegration into Ecuadorian society of persons deprived of liberty, for which 26 reforms are proposed to the COIP, which prohibit any action, treatment or sanction that implies torture, disappearance forced, corporal punishment and any form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

It determines the responsibility of the State to guarantee that persons deprived of liberty have a dignified life, as well as their protection and services within the rehabilitation centers. It also obliges the State to provide two centers at the national level for prison education and training, in Quito and Guayaquil; In addition, a registry of persons deprived of liberty is proposed.

Conditional suspension of sentence

Initiative: Former Assemblyman Noralma Zambrano (PAIS), 01-30-2019, approved by the CAL on July 8, 2019.

It proposes reforms to articles 444, 536, 630 and 642 of the COIP, related to the suspension of the execution of the custodial sentence imposed in the first instance sentence in cases of crimes of public action. But the proposal is intended to extend this right to crimes of private action, criminal offenses and traffic. With the exception of cases of crimes against sexual and reproductive integrity, in cases of crimes or violations of violence against women or members of the family nucleus.

Penalty to offenders

Initiative: Former Assemblyman Andrés Páez (before CREO), 05-17-2013, qualified by CAL on May 29, 2013.

This project was presented before the approval of the COIP, as it is aimed at reforming several articles of the Penal Code and the Code of Penal Procedure. Specifically, it raises the increase of criminal penalties for repeat offenders or habitual offenders as a means and instrument of social defense and above all, as a means of punitive response for those who have decided to break the rules of coexistence and travel through criminal paths on a recurring and dangerous. (I)