31 general level of overcrowding of 26%. In that context, more than 40% of its prison inmates – in other words, slightly over 100,000 people – have not yet been convicted. These people are held in the same conditions and are exposed to the riots, jailbreaks, violence, drug use, murders, and systems of self-government that prevail inside those prisons. During the past five years, more than a thousand inmates have escaped from 102 Mexican prisons, and around six hundred have lost their lives. The causes given for this high percentage of unconvicted prisoners include delays in judicial proceedings and zeal in prosecuting minor offenses, particularly crimes against property involving 103 negligible amounts of money. In addition, between December 2006 and September 2012, the office of the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) detained 9,233 individuals for alleged ties with organized crime, of whom, during that period, only 104 Moreover, during 2013 the IACHR 1,059 were charged and 377 were released. continued receiving concerning information about authorities practice of exposing 105 persons under investigation in the media. 73. Paraguay is one of the States in the region with the highest levels of pretrial detention, as can be seen in Table 1. According to official government figures, more than 73% of the country’s prison inmates are in pretrial detention. Over the past decade, this situation has been addressed repeatedly and consistently by different international human rights agencies, including the IACHR, which, in its 2001 Special Country Report, recommended that Paraguay ensure that its criminal proceedings are carried out within a reasonable time and to guarantee “full observance of the principle regarding the presumption of innocence such that the general rule is that no individuals 102 IACHR Regional Meeting of Experts on Pretrial Detention, May 9 and 10, 2013, presentation by Dr. Elena Azaola, available in Spanish at: http://www.oas.org/es/cidh/ppl/actividades/prisionpreventiva.asp. Similarly, one recent study indicated that between 1994 and 2004, Mexico’s total number of people in pretrial detention doubled from 41,400 to 81,900; by January 2013, it had risen to 100,304, of whom 75% were being held for local-jurisdiction offenses. México Evalúa: Centro de Análisis de Políticas Públicas, Prison in Mexico: For What? (La Cárcel en México: ¿Para qué?), p. 23 et seq. Source for figures: Secretariat of the Interior (SEGOB). 103 Information presented at the hearing on the Situation of the Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty in Mexico, 144th regular period of regular sessions, organized by Documenta, Asilegal, and Institute of Human Rights Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J., March 23, 2012. 104 Office of the Deputy Prosecutor for Juridical and International Affairs, General Directorate of Juridical Affairs, document SJAI/DGAJ/0638/2013, Re: electronic presentation of information, January 17, 2013, No. 0001700217712. Given to the Animal Político collective in response to a request for public information, document available in Spanish at: http://www.animalpolitico.com/2013/02/de-9-mil-detenidospor-crimen-organizado-en-6-anos-682-purgan-condena/#axzz2dgGIYM91. 105 IACHR, Thematic Hearing: Right to Privacy, Crime Victims and Persons under the Public Prosecutor Ministry, 147th period of regular sessions, organized by: FUNDAR, Center for Analysis and Investigation, Human Rights Commission of the Federal District (CDHDF), among others, March 14, 2013.