29 66. The United States of America is indisputably the country with the largest prison population in the world, with approximately 2,239,751 prisoners; and even though the rate of persons in pretrial detention is nearly 20%, its prison population 92 rate is of 716 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants. 67. In Haiti, as of December 2012, there were 8,860 persons deprived of liberty at the country’s 17 prison facilities (compared to 1,935 inmates in 2004). The levels of prison overcrowding are still alarming, with an average area of living space, for both pretrial detainees and convicts, equal to 0.6 m² per person. This overcrowding is primarily due to the excessive use of prolonged pretrial detention, which in Port-au93 Prince reaches a level of 90%. In 2011, the general proportion of people in pretrial detention at the national level was 89.2% and, in 2010, the general occupancy rate of 94 the prison system stood at 430%. 68. In Guatemala, according to information provided by the Ombudsman’s Office (PDH), people in pretrial detention account for 56% of the prison population, with women representing approximately 7%. That office blames the high proportion of prison inmates awaiting trial on the lack of appropriate infrastructure, the irrational use of pretrial detention, and mass arrests. It also speaks of the “lack of decisiveness” on the part of the judiciary in applying alternative measures other than pretrial detention and states that “the current alternatives available to judges for substitute measures are limited.” The high number of pretrial detainees exacerbates the serious levels of overcrowding within the prison system, as a result of which the authorities have even set up detention facilities at military barracks, which has been criticized as being 95 unconstitutional. 69. In Honduras, the Inter-American Commission notes with concern the 96 recent adoption of Decree No. 56-2013, which came into force on May 17, 2013, and which amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to disallow alternative measures to pretrial detention in an array of twenty-one offenses as well as to recidivists. This is sure 97 to have a significant impact on the already collapsed prison system. 92 International Center for http://www.prisonstudies.org/info/worldbrief/. Prisons Studies, World Prison Brief: 93 UN, Report of the independent expert on the situation of human rights in Haiti, Michel Forst, A/HRC/22/65, published February 7, 2013. 94 Response to the questionnaire for the IACHR’s thematic Report on Pretrial Detention in the Americas, Lawyers Without Borders Canada, November 2, 2012, citing other United Nations sources. 95 Response to the questionnaire for the IACHR’s thematic Report on Pretrial Detention in the Americas, Office of the Attorney for Human Rights of Guatemala, November 2, 2012, pp. 6-8 and 21. 96 97 Republic of Honduras, Decree No. 56-2013, April 25, 2013. Regarding the grave structural shortcomings within the Honduran prison system, see, in general: IACHR, Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on the Situation of Persons Deprived of Liberty in Honduras, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.147, adopted March 18, 2013.