93
238.
As for non-custodial precautionary measures, the Commission
considers that States should first adequately regulate their use and enforcement; ensure
the allocation of the financial resources necessary to make them operational and
available to the largest number of people possible; implement training programs for the
officials involved in the different stages of their use; and establish mechanisms for
supervising their compliance and results. It is also important to produce statistics and
reliable and systematic information on the results obtained with the use of those
measures in order to identify possible obstacles in their application and
implementation, as well as to adopt the pertinent measures to ensure their increased
and more efficient use.
239.
According to Ecuador’s General Public Defender, it is necessary to
operationalize alternatives to pretrial detention, since the absence of monitoring
structures for their real effectiveness leads to their political and judicial “demonization”,
mistrust among prosecutors and victims, the “codification” of judicial debate that
reduces the possibilities of trials being conducted while the accused is free, and the
338
judicial disuse of non-custodial precautionary measures.
240.
The Commission considers it is essential that States set appropriate
mechanisms for assessing procedural risks and for supervising the application of noncustodial precautionary measures, such as those known as pretrial evaluation and
supervision services or offices for alternative measures. In general, such agencies serve
two functions: first, they gather and verify information from different sources about the
accused, which they present to the court as elements to be taken into consideration in
assessing the applicability of and need for a given precautionary measure; and, second,
they conduct oversight of compliance with non-custodial precautionary measures. The
use of this mechanism fosters confidence, both within the judiciary, whose officers feel
they have greater support when ordering measures, and within society, which receives
the message that pretrial liberty is not a synonym for impunity. In addition, studies have
documented the economic benefits to the public administration of establishing this kind
339
of pretrial services.
241.
To summarize, the Commission considers that promoting greater use
of precautionary measures other than pretrial detention is not only consistent with the
principle of the exceptionality of pretrial detention and the right to presumption of
innocence, but also that alternative measures tend by their very nature to be
sustainable and effective as part of a comprehensive strategy to prison overcrowding.
From a broader perspective, modernization of the administration of justice must take
338
IACHR Regional Meeting of Experts on Pretrial Detention, May 9 and 10, 2013, Presentation by
Dr.
Ernesto
Pazmiño
Granizo,
available
in
Spanish
at:
http://www.oas.org/es/cidh/ppl/actividades/prisionpreventiva.asp.
339
See, for example, Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Peru and 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.
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