30 70. The situation in Panama is also a cause for great concern, not only because of the extremely high proportion of pretrial detainees – 65%, with an 98 overcrowding rate of 97% – but also because of its extraordinarily high rates of persons deprived of liberty, with 411 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants. The number of people in pretrial detention per 100,000 inhabitants is 267. The main solution offered by the Panamanian State to deal with the situation of overpopulation and overcrowding is the planned construction of a vast prison complex with the capacity to hold more than 5,000 inmates. However, if the necessary penal system reforms are not adopted, including a more rational use of pretrial detention, Panama will have to build one detention facility with a capacity for 1,000 inmates every year simply to keep up with 99 the current growth rate of the prison population. 71. Uruguay also has a high proportion of detainees in pretrial detention: 100 65% and a rate of 180 pretrial detainees for each 100,000 inhabitants. During its visit to Uruguay, the office of the Rapporteur for Persons Deprived of Liberty noted the existence of a deep-rooted culture among justice operators of favoring the use of pretrial detention as a precautionary measure. Accordingly, the IACHR urged the State “to promote a change in the established judicial culture and practice, one that produces a real paradigm shift in thinking about the appropriateness and need for pretrial 101 detention.” That recommendation also applies to most of the region’s countries, where the exceptional nature of this measure as the guiding principle for its use has not been entirely embraced by justice operators. 72. According to information received by the IACHR, Mexico’s 419 detention centers currently house a prison population of some 242,000 people, of whom 95% are men and 5% are women and, of the total population, 79% are being held for local-jurisdiction crimes and 21% for federal offenses. The country ranks third in the region, after the United States and Brazil, in its total number of people deprived of liberty. Since the overall capacity of its prison system is of 188,000 slots, Mexico has a 98 According to information furnished by the State, the Panamanian prison system has an installed capacity of 7,342 and, as noted in Table No. 1, a prison population of 14,521 inmates: this means an overcrowding rate of 97%; in other words, a general deficit of 7,179 places. This increase in overcrowding is extremely troubling, particularly since the prison occupancy rate stood at 163% in September 2010 (11,578 inmates housed in facilities with the capacity for 7,088). IACHR, Report on the Human Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty in the Americas, para. 450. 99 Stanford Law School International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Center, The Crisis in Panama Continues: Towards a Penitentiary System that Respects Human Rights?” (La crisis en Panamá continúa: ¿Hacia un sistema penitenciario que respete los derechos humanos?), pp. 7, 38, 39, and 57, presented at: IACHR, Thematic Hearing on the Situation of Individuals Deprived of Liberty in Panama, 149th regular period of sessions, organized by Alianza Ciudadana, Stanford Law School International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Center, and Harvard University International Human Rights Clinic, October 31, 2013. 100 Richard M. Aborn and Ashley D. Cannon, Prisons: In Jail, But Not Sentenced, Americas Quarterly, Winter 2013, available at: http://www.americasquarterly.org/aborn-prisons. 101 IACHR, Press Release 76/11 – IACHR Recommends Adoption of a Comprehensive Public Policy on Prisons in Uruguay. Washington, D.C., July 25, 2011, Annex, available at: http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/media_center/PReleases/2011/076.asp, para. 46.