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capacity must be made according to technical criteria and procedures.
Furthermore, the law shall establish the procedures through which the
maximum capacity or the occupation ratio could be disputed. The law
shall prohibit the practice of establishments to maintain more inmates
than the maximum capacity allows. It shall also establish the
mechanisms to immediately remedy any circumstances of
overcrowding. In cases of overcrowding and in the absence of an
effective legal regulation, the competent judicial authorities shall
adopt adequate measures to stop and revert this situation.
B.
Application of other precautionary measures different from pretrial detention
1.
Due to the exceptional nature of pretrial detention, it is recommended
that States take measures to ensure that their domestic laws provide
for less restrictive alternatives to incarceration.
2.
Moreover, the IACHR calls upon the Member States to properly
regulate the use and application of these alternative measures; to
guarantee the resources needed to make them operational and
available to as many people as possible; and to make a rational use of
such measures, taking into consideration their purpose and
effectiveness, according to the characteristics of each case.
3.
The IACHR recommends, that in order to ensure the defendant’s
appearance in court or avoid any obstruction of the investigation, the
application of the following measures should be considered: (a) obtain
the defendant’s commitment to appear for the proceedings and not
obstruct the investigation; (b) the defendant’s obligation to submit to
the custody or care of a specified person or institution, under
stipulated conditions; (c) the obligation to make periodic appearances
before the judge or the authority the judge designates; (d) a
restriction on any travel beyond the boundaries set by the court; (e)
withholding of travel documents; (f) an order for the defendant’s
immediate eviction from the family home in cases involving domestic
violence and when the victim lives with the defendant; (g) a warranty,
bond or security of sufficient economic value put up by the interested
party or a third party; (h) surveillance of the defendant by means of an
electronic tracking device or a positioning device that determines his
or her physical location; (i) arrest either in his/her own or another
person’s house, with no surveillance or with the surveillance that the
court orders; or (j) pretrial detention in the event that the previous
measures were not sufficient to serve the intended purposes. The
judge should privilege the less restrictive measure adequate to
prevent the flight risk or the hampering of the proceedings.
4.
Ensure that bail is applied according to material equality criteria, and
does not discriminate against those who do not have the economic
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