53
E.
Financial cost of pretrial detention
124.
In addition to its specific impact on individuals, the generalized use of
pretrial detention implies a major financial cost for states. For example, it has been
calculated that the average total cost of pretrial detention to the State of Mexico, using
the year 2006 as the parameter (prison population of more than 92,000 pretrial
detainees) was more than 5,794 million pesos (US$446 million), which includes upkeep
of detainees (prison infrastructure and current operating expenses), costs of criminal
trials (investigation, judicial proceedings, and public defense and social assistance),
health care for detainees’ families, and employers’ contributions to social security. But
the total average social cost of all this stood at more than 9,755 million pesos (US$750
million), including the cost to the State detailed above, the costs to detainees and their
175
families, and the costs to the community.
176
125.
A study conducted in Peru using 2011 figures estimated that the
daily cost to the State of keeping an inmate in pretrial detention was 22 sols.
Maintaining the population of 34,508 people in pretrial detention would represent a
daily cost of 759,176 sols (US$271,134) or an annual outlay of 277,099,240 sols
(US$98,964,014). That said, the average daily total social cost of pretrial detention
would be 51.4 sols which, for a total population of 34,508 prison inmates, represents a
daily outlay of 1,773,711 sols (US$633,468); that daily social cost over the space of one
year would reach 647,404,515 sols (US$231,215,898). That total social cost includes the
cost to the State provided above, and the costs to the detainees and their families
(without including the cost to the community).
126.
Chile calculated that the direct costs of pretrial detention in 2007, with
a total population of inmates awaiting or facing trial of 9,385 (22.1% of the total
population of the closed prison regime), amounted to 33,390,803,398 pesos
(US$63,905,842), including the criminal justice system and the gendarmerie. The
indirect costs were calculated at 14,930,665,426 pesos (US$28,575,436), which include
admission, visits, private attorneys, and costs incurred as a result of death in custody.
With this, the total cost of pretrial detention in Chile in 2007 was around
177
48,321,467,824 pesos (US$92,481,278). As can be seen from these figures, although
175
Open Society / Justice Initiative, ¿How much does pretrial detention cost? Economic and Social
costs of pretrial detention in Mexico (¿Cuánto cuesta la prisión sin condena? Costos económicos y sociales de la
prisión preventiva en México), Guillermo Zepeta Lecuona, 2009, pp. 17, 53-60. According to this study, “the
daily cost [to the State] of its pretrial detainees could cover annual support for 1,930 families under the
Oportunidades antipoverty program, or an additional 21,062 children could be included in the school
breakfasts program for one year. The annual national spending on pretrial detention could cover the national
social milk supply program for eleven and a half years, or almost two years of the national school breakfasts
program or of the antipoverty program in Oaxaca” (p. 54).
176
Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and the Peruvian Center for the Development of Justice
and Citizen Security (CERJUSC), Baseline study for the implementation of an office for pretrial services in the
context of the Criminal Procedure Code (Estudio de línea de base para la implementación de una oficina de
servicios previos al juicio en el marco del Código Procesal Penal), 2013, pp. 120-124.
177
Paz Ciudadana Foundation, The Costs of Pretrial Detention in Chile (Los Costos de la Prisión
Preventiva en Chile), 2008, pp. 2, 15 y 21.
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