That the pardon be the beginning of a policy of social rehabilitation, but not a ‘patch’ measure, the request in the face of the prison crisis in Ecuador

The aspiration of the national government is to reduce prison overcrowding by pardoning at least 5,000 inmates until the end of 2022. The excess population in prisons has been identified as one of the problems contributing to the prison crisis in the country.

For this, the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, signed this Monday, February 21, Executive Decree 355 that establishes the requirements that prisoners must meet to avail themselves of said benefit, which consists of pardoning the sentence imposed.

The Government estimates that some 5,000 detainees could be released from jail applying a presidential pardon; judges will have the last word

He did so within the framework of the presentation of the public policy for social rehabilitation that his government plans to implement between 2022 and 2025, with a budget of $27 million.

“To protect many innocent citizens who have committed minor crimes, who made mistakes in their lives, but who cannot be subjected to blackmail, to pressure inside the prisons,” the president stated during an interview broadcast this Tuesday, March 22. February, and transmitted from the Palacio de Carondelet.

To protect many innocent citizens who have committed minor crimes, who have made mistakes in their lives, but who cannot be subjected to blackmail, to pressure inside the prisons

Guillermo Lasso, President of the Republic

According to the Government, in the Ecuadorian prison system there are 34,821 people when the installed capacity is 30,169 places.

The pardon will favor those who are imprisoned for the crimes of robbery, theft, fraud or abuse of trust with an enforceable sentence and who have already served 40% of the sentence imposed with the previous Penal Code and 60% of the sentence applied with the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code (COIP).

Other requirements are not having more sentences or precautionary measures in force. Not having a criminal proceeding or prior investigation and not having been disciplinary sanctioned for committing minor, serious or very serious offenses established in the COIP, since entering the prison.

Both for the sanctions based on the previous Criminal Code and the current one, the pardon does not extinguish the integral reparation to the victim, the fine imposed in the sentence or those of a pecuniary or other nature.

Who will not receive pardon?

In the case of the courts with the old Penal Code, those convicted of robbery that have caused death or permanent disability will not benefit from this benefit.

Meanwhile, among those sentenced with the COIP, those who have incurred in the fourth and sixth paragraph of article 189, that is, those who have caused death or disability, will not enjoy a pardon. To this is added having caused some of the injuries described in number 5 of article 152.

These are the following: mental illness, loss of a sense or the faculty of speech, uselessness for work, permanent disability, loss or disablement of an organ or a serious communicable and incurable disease.

On why the previous decrees (signed in November 2021) that also sought to implement pardons for certain prisoners did not work, President Guillermo Lasso attributed this to bureaucratic processes and corruption in the National Comprehensive Care Service for Adults Deprived of Liberty. La Libertad and Adolescent Offenders (SNAI), which are being corrected.

Feedback on the initiative

Billy Navarrete, secretary of the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDH), maintained that overcrowding in the country’s prisons generates conditions of torture and degrading treatment for those deprived of liberty.

However, he mentioned that there is skepticism in this organization since the measures previously adopted to address the prison crisis have had little effectiveness.

“It must be remembered that in November 2021 the Government already made use of that pardon attribution, through Decree 264; the Government decreed the presidential pardon for articles 383 and 386 (of the COIP) (…). That compared to the magnitude of the problem had little effect. It would be necessary to ask the national government to account for the effectiveness of that pardon practiced before, “explained the activist.

Regarding the current decree, Navarrete estimated that the prison population that will benefit is reduced, something that, rather than providing a solution to the structural problem of prisons, becomes a distracting action, a patchwork measure.

“The government does not control the prisons, it has confessed. He takes refuge in that excuse to let the criminal organizations that operate inside and outside go by. And I think that the axis of the conflict is there, the rest is litter”, he expressed.

Lawyer Roger Tumalli also considers that the underlying problem in prisons goes beyond overcrowding and, therefore, the path of pardon could be isolated if it is not part of a policy promoted from a comprehensive reform that takes into account the established guidelines. in article 51 of the Constitution.

There, for example, it is established that those deprived of liberty have the right to have their educational, labor, productive, cultural, food and recreational needs met.

In practice, this does not happen in a prison system declared in crisis, in which there have been massacres between criminal gangs linked to international drug trafficking, according to those familiar with the matter.

“Here we ask ourselves a question: what happens to these people who are going to leave. They are rehabilitated, because the constitutional norm indicates that the deprivation of liberty is one of the circumstances that seek to rehabilitate these people. And in this case, well, there is no technical standard that determines that these people (possibly pardoned) have been prepared, have followed psychological processes to reintegrate into society, “said Tumalli.

Here we ask ourselves a question: what happens to these people who are going to leave. They are rehabilitated, because the constitutional norm indicates that the deprivation of liberty is one of the circumstances that seek to rehabilitate these people.

Roger Tumalli, lawyer

And he added that in the absence of such rehabilitation, with comprehensive work, there is a risk that many inmates who regain their freedom will commit crimes again.

Gabriel Vanegas, criminal lawyer and Master in Criminal Justice, thinks that the pardon initiative is an important step to address the prison crisis that requires a policy “that goes from the preventive, from the eradication of criminal hotspots and, obviously, from to regain the control that the Government has lost a long time ago,” he commented.

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He referred that it is pertinent that the executive decree contemplates the integral reparation of the victim, since these are crimes against private property.

“I think it is an important step that people who are being deprived of their liberty for crimes against property can receive a benefit of a semi-open regime or a pre-release as long as the comprehensive reparation of the victim is taken care of,” he remarked. Vanegas. (I)