Lucia Salinas
04/29/2020 - 15:54
- Clarín.com
- Politics
The General Defender of the Nation, Stella Maris Martínez, recommended to all the official lawyers that make up the Public Ministry of Defense and that have causes with persons deprived of liberty, "that they renew or urge the expediting of the requests for liberty or remission. of the confinement situation . " The request is made amid political debate over the granting of house arrests.
The document through which Martínez formalized the request maintains that it must be the prisoners who "may be included in the group of people at risk from the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, as well as those inmates who, due to their situation, are included in the group who have committed minor crimes, or who are close to serving their sentences . "
The request aims to "intensify actions aimed at reducing prison overcrowding ."
According to Martínez's writing, the situation is "so serious that it requires the joint effort of all public authorities, the National Executive Power and the National Congress, within the scope of their competence, and the jurisdictional bodies", to speed up what became a judicial and political debate: the granting of house arrests.
He recalled that this should apply to cases of "persons in preventive detention for crimes of low or non-violent nature, or that do not represent a significant procedural risk, or when the duration of pre-trial detention has ostensibly exceeded the time limits provided by law 24390 ", which sets a maximum of two years with a possible extension for preventive prisons.
In addition, it included people sentenced "for non-violent crimes who are close to serving the imposed sentence ; people sentenced to terms of up to 3 years in prison; people in legal conditions to imminently access the regime of assisted liberty, temporary exits or freedom conditional , provided they meet the other requirements, and pregnant or imprisoned women with their sons and daughters. "
To support his request, he referred to what was formulated by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which held: "Given the high impact that COVID-19 may have on persons deprived of liberty in prisons and other detention centers and in view of the special position of guarantor of the State, it becomes necessary to reduce the levels of overpopulation and overcrowding, and to provide in a rational and orderly manner alternative measures to the deprivation of liberty ”.
For this reason, the General Defender of the Nation considers that in the current scenario that our country is experiencing, with the extended quarantine and with the problems that the prison system faces, it is necessary "to seek a balance between the rights of society and, in particular , of those who cover the quality of victims. "
Martínez cited a proposal from the “Prison Commission” regarding the possible insufficiency of the measures adopted in the prisons to prepare for the possible contagion of inmates, and the antecedent of the one agreed upon by the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation, which recommended to the lower courts, alternative measures to prison , mainly the granting of house arrest, with the corresponding control and monitoring mechanisms, with respect to people who are in preventive detention for "crimes of low or non-violent nature, or that do not represent a risk significant procedural, or when the duration of the precautionary detention has ostensibly exceeded the deadlines set forth in Law 24390, in relation to the facts imputed and taking into account the characteristics of each process ”.
Thus, the Ombudsman concluded that it is "to take extreme measures to guarantee the health of the prison population , which is a function that rests primarily with the prison and health authorities and, in a balance between the rights at stake, reducing prison overcrowding."