THE CURRENT MEXICAN PENITENTIAL SYSTEM HAS DEMONSTRATED ITS TOTAL INEFFICIENCY AND INABILITY TO READAPT, BECAUSE THE MORE THE PENALTIES GET HARD, THE HIGHER THE INDEX OF REINCIDENT INMATES AND THE LOWER THE ALLEGED READAPTATION; THUS, PRISONS ARE AUTHENTIC UNIVERSITIES OF CRIME.
Mexican-penitentiary-system-its-adaptation-to-the-remuneration-modelTHE PENITENTIARY REMUNERATION SYSTEM PROPOSES A MODEL BASED ON WORK WITH A BUSINESS VISION, IN SUCH A WAY THAT WHAT ARE NOW PRISONS, ARE TRANSFORMED INTO RURAL PRODUCTION CENTERS OR URBAN INDUSTRIAL WORK CENTERS FOR THE REINCARDATION OF THE SOCIAL INSTITUTION BE SUSTAINED AND DO NOT CAUSE SUCH BUDGETARY BURDEN, AND ALSO, EARN A MINIMUM WAGE, WHICH IS DESTINED TO YOUR FAMILY AND TO COMPENSATE THE DAMAGES CAUSED BY YOUR CRIMINAL CONDUCT, AT THE TIME THAT YOU LEARN AND APPLY AN ART OR SCIENCE, WITHIN INDUSTRY OR AGRICULTURAL OR LIVESTOCK MATTER.
LIKEWISE, THE ORGANIC STRUCTURE WILL BE TRANSFORMED TO A MANAGEMENT VISION, AND THE GUIDELINES MUST BE THE TRUE AND EFFECTIVE REINCESSION OF THE OFFENDER TO SOCIETY, AND AT TIME, THEIR SELF-SUSTAINABILITY WITH THE MERIT OF ACQUIRING OR IMPROVING SCIENCE..
INTRODUCTION
Article 18 of the Constitution that states: "The prison system will be organized on the basis of work, training for it, education, health and sports, as means to achieve the reintegration of the sentenced into society and ensure that he does not return to commit a crime, observing the benefits that the law provides for him ”.
La traza histórica del Nuevo Modelo de Administración Penitenciaria tiene su origen en las sociedades más antiguas como la griega; en México hay vestigios en comunidades prehispánicas pero el principal interés del autor se centra en “la clasificación de los presos, su reinserción, infraestructura, profesionalización del personal penitenciario y un sistema nacional de información penitenciaria”, que encuentra su génesis en el “Casillero Nacional de Sentencias propuesto por Maximiliano de Habsburgo, retomado por Benito Juárez y modificado después como Registro Nacional de Información Penitenciaria por Adolfo Ruiz Cortines.
He meditated that the work aims to “integrate the effort to standardize the prison system, with a sense of standardization or unification in order to have a greater capacity for response and not for action. I hope I have confused you because from that confusion a doubt arises and science from doubt ”, he concluded.
For his part, the director of the Human Rights Legal Center, Ricardo Sepúlveda Iguiñez, who presented the work alongside the third visitor of the National Human Rights Commission, David Romero Mejia; the director of the Faculty of Law (U. Anahuac), Ricardo Sodi Cuellar and the commissioner of the Decentralized Administrative Organism and Social Readaptation, General Eduardo Enrique Gómez García, highlighted the intellectual work of the author who proposes an axis of theoretical reflection with the contribution of a new model of prison administration.
He glimpsed that although it is not the purpose of the volume, the author, through solutions, proposes a penitentiary system in which human rights prevail "because he is committed to justice." He considered that the treatment of the issue of human rights responds to the "crisis and crime situation in which we live", that is, a New Model of Penitentiary Administration is an "instrument to eradicate problems of violence, insecurity and change the prison paradigm."
Regarding the rehabilitation methods that Arias proposes, Sepúlveda Iguiñez agreed with a phrase by Plato that says "Inmates (when they leave prisons) do not have to be equal or worse, but better."
For Sodi Cuellar, the structure that makes up the work is based on the revolutions in Mexico, which represent an act of freedom in the release of prisoners. "The history of penitentiaryism, the prison system in Mexico, analysis of the current situation of the prison administration and the challenges of the Mexican prison system and the bases of a new model, are the framework in which the author joins the academic community ”.
He considered that among the challenges facing the legal framework, the acts of corruption that predominate in the country's prisons stand out. He agreed with the author that the bases of the prison system and the bases for the rehabilitation of inmates are based on work, sports, education and health for adequate rehabilitation. "The book reflects the efforts in the exercise of social rehabilitation." “Making a call and recapitulation of what happens in the prison system” is one of the objectives that Romero Mejia found in the work. Overcrowding, overcrowding and lack of resources coupled with public policies are factors in which the author points out to “recognize where to go from the prison system to a prison administration system”.
Over time, this institution has undergone changes with the purpose of establishing organizational improvements as well as technical ones, which is why some antecedents, legal regulations and attributions will be presented below in order to publicize its current form of operation.
LEGAL FRAMEWORK
Political Constitution of the United Mexican States.
Statute of Government of the DF.
Organic Law of the Public Administration of the DF.
Law of Execution of Criminal Sanctions for the DF.
Law that establishes the minimum standards on Social Rehabilitation of
Sentenced Persons.
Law of Budgets, Accounting and Public Expenditure.
Acquisitions Law of the DF.
Penal Code for the DF.
Code of Criminal Procedures for the DF.
Opinion issued by the Official Office of the readscription of the General Directorate of Prevention and Social Readaptation.
Prisons in Mexico: A State of Situation
The purpose is to describe a picture of the situation and analyze some of the Determinants of the crisis. Using different sources, which include official statistics and a survey carried out on more than 1600 inmates in the Federal District, the State of Mexico and the State of Morelos in 2002, this work seeks to explain the reasons for the explosive growth of the prison population. illuminate the reasons for the lack of adequate infrastructure, and examine the most relevant problems of penitentiary institutions in the light of empirical evidence.
The central argument is that the growth of the prison population in the last decade is due to a tougher punishment rather than an increase in the detection capacity of the authorities. Although the crime grew, there is no significant increase in the number of sentences. The bureaucratic structure of the administration of Justice has been stable, however criminal activity was not.
The increase in sentences and their extension caused an explosion in the prison population that has not been able to be remedied with a slight increase in the prison infrastructure. The precariousness of social rehabilitation programs deepened with the increase in inmates. Thus, corruption seems to have increased, resources per inmate decreased, internal control of prisons is increasingly in the hands of gangs and leaderships of some inmates, educational retraining programs are not very effective, and desolation is increasing..
However, despite the fact that the budgets are not enough to cover the minimum needs, the problem is not only one of resources but also of administration and effective control within the prisons. The lack of institutional coordination, the toughening of punishments for minor crimes, and the lack of adequate planning and resources make Mexico's prisons a space of punishment for the poor and marginalized, centers of abuse where human rights do not seem to be clearly defined. respected. The deterrent effect of deprivation of liberty is limited since those who end up in jail are generally not the most dangerous and sophisticated criminals, but mostly those who could not corrupt the authorities or could not mount an adequate defense. In a social environment of growing insecurity,There does not seem to be the political or social will to reverse this situation.
The Social Readaptation System in its Figures
This report begins with a succinct exposition of the prison population in Mexico according to the most recent data. The following are some general statistics of the Mexican social rehabilitation system for the end of 2003.
The total population is close to 200,000 inmates throughout the country. An important fact that Table 1 shows is that unlike many other Latin American countries
(see Ungar 2003), most of the inmates are already sentenced and not in process
Table 1: Total Number of Inmates according to status of the Process and Jurisdiction
Common Federal Total
The distribution by sex is similar to that of most of the countries in the region. Of the total in 2003, 182,500 (95.5%) are men and 9,300 are women (4.5%)
The density of the prison population in the republic is more associated with the urban population than with the total population in absolute terms.
Factors that affect the increase in the prison population
Among the factors that have affected the one hundred percent increase in the country's prison population between 1992 and 2003, the following are worth mentioning: 1 a) increase in crime rates; b) reforms to the codes that have toughened the penalties and, c) administrative measures that prolong the stay in prison. We will briefly analyze each of them.
a) Increase in crime rates. The number of crimes that were reported in the country increased from 809 thousand crimes in 1991 to one million 517 thousand in 2001, which represents an increase of 88% in just ten years. Regarding the number of crimes reported per thousand inhabitants, the maximum point was reached in 1997 with 16.18, falling to 14.26 in 2000 and rising again to 15.1 in 2002. The entities with the indices of
Highest crime are: Baja California, Federal District and Quintana Roo.
1 In some entities the increase has been even greater. In the Federal District, for example, the prison population tripled between 1993 and 2002, from 7,800 inmates to 23,000 (Tenorio, 2002b).
It is worth noting that this increase in the number of reported crimes has taken place despite the fact that, according to all the victimization surveys that have been carried out, the percentage of crimes that are not reported would also have increased year after year during the last seven years.
Indeed, according to these surveys, between 70 and 80% of the crimes that have taken place during that period have not been
Reported to the authorities. Similarly, it should be taken into account that 93% of crimes go unpunished given that only 7% of the crimes that are reported lead to the initiation of a process before the judiciary (Ministry of Public Security, 2003; Zepeda, 2002).
b) Reforms that have hardened penalties. Another factor that has contributed to increasing the population of prisons is that of the reforms to the penal codes that took place since 1994, by means of which a large number of crimes were classified as serious, resulting in increased penalties. Likewise, various crimes were exempted from the possibility of granting pre-release benefits to those who committed them, considerably increasing their stay in prison.
This is the case of crimes against health (drug trafficking) for which no reduction of the sentence imposed by the judges is allowed.
c) Administrative measures. Similarly, it must be taken into account that those who finally decide on the permanence of inmates in prison are not the judges but the technical personnel of the penitentiaries who have broad powers to grant or deny the benefits of pre-release. This means that the effective penalties are not necessarily proportional to the seriousness of the crime and that the
Benefits are awarded in an arbitrary and untimely manner, especially if it is considered that said personnel is in charge of reviewing many more files than they can handle. This is the case, for example, of the Federal District where each of the officials empowered to grant benefits has between 400 and 2,000 files in their charge, which explains why they are not able to grant them in a timely manner.
There are no studies that show which of these or other factors have a greater impact on the growth of the prison population. The data suggest, however, that more than a flow growth we are facing a typical increase in stock. In other words, the initial evidence indicates that the population grew more due to the length of sentences than due to the number of admissions.
The Prison Population and the Type of Crime
As will be seen, the distribution of inmates per crime that we find in prisons is due to the capacity of law enforcement systems to apprehend suspects and that of the courts to impose sanctions on the guilty. In other words, the composition of the population by crime does not correspond only to the distribution of the crimes that are actually committed multiplied by the duration of the penalties that correspond to them, but, rather, to the capacity of the institutions of the Justice system to apprehend and convict those responsible.
As the following table shows, inmates detained for violent crimes constitute the majority group. This is not only because their sentences are longer, but also reflects the increase that this type of crime has had in recent years.
Table 6: Distribution of the Prison Population by Crimes according to the Inmate Survey (2002)
The crime that has increased the most in the last decade is robbery with violence. According to the survey data, 57% of those accused of robbery with violence admitted to having used a weapon, as well as 56% of those accused of crimes against people, also did. The imposition of more severe sentences, and therefore the increase in the number of inmates, also reflects a higher incidence of violent crimes.
A dimension of crimes
Given that there are no victimization surveys that can measure the crime trend over time, the data on reported crimes represent the best crime rate so far. Some partial surveys place the black figure at 75%, that is, only 1 in 4 crimes are reported, and for 2001 4,400 crimes were registered for every 100,000 inhabitants (ICESI 2002). However, in this survey, most of the crimes registered are not of high severity where the black figure would surely be much lower.
According to different official sources, crime peaked in 1997 and since then it has started to decline moderately. This decrease would have been more noticeable in some crimes than in others. The number of complaints for theft, for example, decreased 10% between 1997 and 2001. However, complaints for vehicle theft increased 2%. The same can be observed in relation to violent crimes: while homicide decreased 11%, injuries, on the other hand, increased 12%.
Also, while the category of other crimes decreased, damages, threats, fraud and breaches of trust, would have increased. The same happened with the violations that increased 12%. Overall, there would have been a decrease of only 4% in the number of cases reported in 2001 compared to those reported in 1997.
Of the total crimes reported in 1998, 43% were robberies; 18% injuries; 10% damage to someone else's property; 5% crimes against health (drug trafficking); 4% threats; 4% fraud and 3% homicide. As for theft, the average was 583 robberies per 100,000 inhabitants. According to another classification, in 2001 crimes were distributed as follows: robbery 37.2%; injuries 17.9%; damage to people's property 9.8% and other crimes 35.1% (Ministry of Public Security, 2003) As can be seen, the reporting of crimes to the authorities shows a strong bias in which minor crimes prevail for which short sentences are imposed. If so, at least on first reading, the prison population is far from reflecting the distribution of criminal activity that actually takes place in society.
Crimes against health. Some of the data that we obtained through the survey are the following: 8% of the inmates are serving a sentence for this type of crime, mostly for drug dealing. In 56% of the cases they were charged with marijuana trade and in 34% with cocaine. It is important to note that 10% of those accused of dealing with prohibited substances indicated that they had acted in complicity with authorities, mainly the police.
Likewise, according to the information provided by the inmates, the average value they obtained from the commercialization of the substances was 1,168 pesos (approximately 100 dollars).This means that, for the vast majority, the commercialization amounts were considerably low. In fact, only in 10% of the cases did the amounts exceed 3,900 pesos (approximately $ 400), which indicates that the vast majority of those who serve a sentence for crimes against health serve sentences for drug trafficking of very low value. What abounds in prisons, then, are not the largest traffickers but the small merchants, or probably consumers who were detained with quantities that barely exceeded those tolerated for personal consumption.
Stole. The vast majority of the prison population serves short sentences for simple robberies.
According to the data from the survey, in the prisons studied there is a considerable number, (almost 25% of those who are for simple robbery), who would have stolen less than 1,000 pesos (less than 100 dollars) Similarly, half of those inmates for simple robbery, they would have stolen less than 6,000 pesos (less than 600 USD).
Given that more than 70% of the inmates for this crime argued that, had they had the resources to bribe the authorities at the time they were arrested, they would have managed to avoid going to prison, this allows us to infer that those who commit major robberies and have more resources, effectively evade punitive sanction. In other words, the justice system focuses mainly on the punishment of crimes against the property of those who commit minor thefts. In fact, according to the survey, only 5% of the inmates who are for property crimes have stolen amounts greater than 75 thousand pesos (7,500 USD), which reinforces the idea that the institutions in charge of investigating, prosecuting and punishing, clearly fail to punish this segment of criminals.
The foregoing allowed us to conclude that, in the prisons of the entities studied, there are not the most dangerous offenders but those whose detention offers the least difficulties.
Differential access to resources such as defense or the possibility that some have to escape justice through bribery, causes that there are a large number of poor in prisons while a high proportion of professional criminals remain outside them.
Homicides In the three states surveyed, 10% of inmates are serving a sentence for intentional homicide and 5% for wrongful death. However, it should be taken into account that inmates for this crime appear over-represented in the sample since, due to its seriousness, they remain in prison for longer.
Kidnapping. Regarding the number of kidnappings, during 2001 the attorney general's offices registered a total of 345 cases nationwide: almost one kidnapping per day, on average. However, an organization that groups together businessmen (Coparmex) pointed out that in the same year it registered another 297 cases that were not reported to the authorities, therefore, if so, there would have been 642 cases of kidnapping during that year, not counting the called Express hijackings, which last a few hours. In the surveyed entities, 4% of inmates are serving a sentence for illegal deprivation of liberty (kidnapping).
Infrastructure and Living Conditions in Penitentiary Centers
Like most prison systems in Latin America, Mexico's prisons have marked organizational deficiencies and serious functional deficiencies. In prisons there is an infrastructure to form a data network that is used in less than 10% of its capacity, therefore there is a serious lack of technical, adequate and updated information. There are not, for example, the fingerprints of all those indicted for crimes of the common jurisdiction. There is also no verifiable information on the detainees, whether they are in process or have already obtained a sentence (Gertz Manero, 2001).
According to information from the Ministry of Public Security, between 1998 and 2002, 5 million dollars were invested in the construction of 62 new penitentiaries; however, an additional one and a half million were required to complete 32 of them that were left unfinished. The same source indicates that, during said period, 40 million dollars have been invested in training, weapons, equipment, transportation and infrastructure within the security and justice sectors but, despite this, crime rates continue to increase.
According to this Program: “the lack of financial resources and qualified personnel, has repercussions in the lack of reliable security systems and in the inefficiency of the custody functions, since these are not carried out in accordance with the laws and regulations in force, favoring high levels of corruption in all its forms and modalities: influence peddling, delay in the review of files, introduction, sale and consumption of drugs, extortion, prostitution, impunity, violence and overcrowding ”(2003).
The Human Rights Commission of the Federal District, the external body in charge by law of monitoring the proper functioning of social rehabilitation, registered a total of 1,600 complaints about the violation of different rights presented by inmates in prisons in the city during 2002 (see also United Nations, 2003)
In the survey of inmates, it reveals a wealth of information that allows documenting some of the aforementioned problems and carries out a more specific and detailed analysis of the living conditions of inmates in prisons in the country. Some of the results are very indicative.
Overcrowding, as in other countries, is a serious problem. In the prisons included in the study, there are cells for 3 inmates where more than 10 sleep and others that, taking place for 5, are inhabited by more than 20. On average, the inmates report that they slept in the same room last week with 9 other inmates. It is noteworthy that due to the lack of mattresses and beds, many sleep on the floor (20% report that they had to pay to receive a mattress, an average of 40 pesos or 4 USD).
Table 7: Percentage of People Responding Who Provides the Following
Regarding the provision of basic consumer goods, 53% of the inmates interviewed consider that the food they provide is "insufficient" while 41% consider it of "bad" or "very bad" quality. Likewise, 29% indicated that they do not have enough water to drink. In addition, 98% say that the institution does not give them soap, 99% do not provide toothpaste and 98% do not provide toothbrush.
An important chapter about internal corruption is described with the payment for elementary services. Each service has a “fee”, especially due to the lack of provision of basic goods.
So the family usually takes care of this provision and also has to pay bribes to the security guards in order to introduce them to the institution. The following tables describe such a situation.
Table 8: Percentage of Inmates who report receiving the following assets from their relatives
Table 9: Percentage of inmates who report that their relatives had to "pay" to be able to provide them with the following goods and services
Likewise, 22% report that they know inmates who were granted pre-release benefits through payment. However, 30% indicated that the treatment given to their relatives when they visit them is "bad" or "very bad."
Another issue of great importance is internal security in the prison. Because inmates in certain instances feel intimidated or their answers may not be correct, the problem is in any case greater. That is, the following figures may be underestimated.
76% said they felt less safe in prison than where they resided before entering, and 20% of inmates said they did not feel safe in their cell. 56% reported having suffered robberies in the institution, some up to more than ten times, and 10% reported having been beaten by guards or other inmates during the last six months.
According to the constitution and the official perspective, the prisons are centers of social rehabilitation. Therefore, the objective of the conviction is in
first measure the reform of the inmates. For this, there are education, training and job programs. The survey tells us that only 37% of the interviewees reported that they participate in work activities and 55% in educational ones, despite the fact that the regulations consider these activities a requirement to be able to grant pre-release benefits to inmates. In this regard, an interesting result is what the inmates think about how to obtain such benefits. Only 37% consider that what prevails is good behavior and participation in rehabilitation programs. However, 49% consider that what matters is having money and having influence.
Finally, a very important issue is drug use. Although only 17% reported having used drugs in the last month, it is very likely that this figure is considerably underestimated (many inmates did not trust that such information would not be reported to the authorities. The authorities estimate that 50% consume regularly)
However, among those who did report having used, the average of what they spent was 585 pesos in the last month (almost 60 USD - also a figure probably underestimated). The vast majority of the reported consumption was marijuana, cocaine. Obtaining the resources for the purchase of drugs generates networks of corruption and extortion and even an escalation of violence.
In interviews prior to the survey with various prison directors, they gave the impression, without expressing it openly, that the attitude towards drugs was tolerant.
Because their main concern is the tranquility of the inmates and avoiding riots in overcrowded prisons, drug use seems to be informally accepted.
However, it is highly probable that guards and authorities are complicit in the networks and circuits of internal traffic that produces considerable economic gains. However, such a hypothesis could not be tested with the survey.
Although we only have representative data for the prisons of 3 states, it is highly probable that the variance in the results is not very large, that is, there is no reason to maintain that the rest of the country or some states in particular present modalities very different from those shown. Therefore, these data and others derived from the survey, as indicated in the original study Bergman et al 2003), allow us to reach the following conclusions regarding the main problems faced by prisons:
1. In general terms, almost all the penitentiary establishments included in the study show significant deterioration and deficiencies in terms of the conditioning of their spaces, the state of the facilities and the furniture, as well as in the availability and universal access by inmates to basic goods and services. These deficiencies have, however, an undoubted negative impact on the quality of life of the inmates and, consequently, on the type of relationships and exchanges that are generated between them and with the staff.
2. The role of the family is decisive for the well-being of the inmate. Families often assume, and in different ways, a significant part of the inmate's confinement costs. This means that the institution imposes, or de facto admits that they be imposed, penalties that include the family, which transcend the inmate. In addition to the fact that this situation is legally inadmissible, it places those inmates who lack a family or whose families are unwilling or unable to bear these costs at a disadvantage.
3. Order, legality and security within the institution contribute to strengthen the hypothesis that the prison institution tends to form its own universe of relationships characterized by the predominance of a para-legal regime. The fact that inmates coexist for a certain time within a regime with these characteristics constitutes one more argument in favor of undertaking an in-depth review of the role that, in practice, the penitentiary institution plays today.
4. The increase in the prison population, the lack of adequate infrastructure, and the levels of internal corruption and a genuine lack of rehabilitation, denote the low investment in human resources and material resources to solve the prison crisis. There is no political-administrative will to face such challenges. In other words, this general situation indicates that prisons are not considered a substantive or relevant item both within the political agenda of Mexico and in the policies of resource allocation. Prisons are not seen, in other terms, as an area in which it is worth investing, but, rather, as an expense that it would always be desirable to be able to economize. Inmates and the Justice Administration System
Prison is the last link in the chain called the Criminal Justice System. Those who were arrested, accused and sentenced arrive in the prisons.
In different instances there are filters and systems that are shaping the type of offender who will end up serving a sentence, that is, these institutions directly or indirectly affect the penitentiary institution. Some data from the survey illustrate aspects that are omitted from official statistics.
Of the total of those interviewed, 65% said that they pleaded guilty before the Public Ministry (in the attorney general's offices). The reasons given for this are distributed as follows: 50% because they are recognized as guilty; 23% for having been tortured; 12% for having been threatened; 3% because they were recommended by their lawyer and 2% because they were recommended by the Public Ministry. The remaining 10% provided other reasons.
In the courts, 66% of the inmates say they have not been informed of their right not to testify, while 80% were not informed of this right in the Public Ministry agencies. Just over a quarter, 27%, did not have a lawyer when giving their preparatory statement.
A significant 71% of those sentenced reported that the judge was not present when he rendered his preparatory statement and 80% reported that they never had the opportunity to speak with the judge.
Some of those surveyed perceive that, had they bribed the authorities, they could have escaped prison.However, this perception of corruptibility is not evenly distributed among the different types of authorities that intervened from the time the inmate was arrested until received sentence. While 52% of those sentenced consider that they could have been released from having bribed the police officers who detained them, this proportion drops to 37% when referring to the Public Ministry and decreases to 27% in relation to the secretaries of agreement or the judges.
When expressly asking the inmates if any authority asked them for money or belongings in exchange for their freedom, the respondents responded that the authorities most susceptible to being extorted are: the judicial police, in the first place, and the preventive police, in a close second. place. Here the trend observed regarding the perception of corruptibility is maintained according to what was observed in the previous paragraph, that is, as the process progresses, the doors of corruption are reduced. In this case, the distribution of reported corruption by type of authority was as follows:
Table 10: Corruption reported by inmates (% who answered affirmatively) Type of authority Asked for money or belongings from the inmate
Specific questions were also asked about the type of mistreatment and / or abuse that the inmates may have suffered throughout the criminal process. The responses, once again, varied depending on the type of authority, distributed as follows:
Table 11: Mistreatment or abuse exercised against inmates (% who answered affirmatively if they were humiliated or tortured)
60% of those surveyed indicated that they had been detained at the time or within hours of the crime. The high proportion of detainees in flagrante delicto also allows us to infer that most of the arrests are carried out by the preventive police. Thus, it is foreseeable that most of the crimes that are punished are of little complexity and, probably also, of little gravity. Similarly, it is likely that in most cases that go to trial there will not be a thorough investigation by prosecutors.
The information from the survey allowed us to reach the following conclusions regarding the performance of law enforcement and administration institutions.
a) The moment in which the offender is detained by the police is the one that is indicated with the highest levels of perceived and reported corruption. For this reason, it represents the most important informal exit door for a criminal to escape from criminal action.
b) The investigation carried out by the prosecutors manages to identify only a very small proportion of responsible subjects. Most of those sentenced were arrested in flagrante delicto.
c) Most of the crimes that are punished are of little gravity and complexity.
d) There is a systematic violation of the minimum standards of due legal process, from the moment of arrest to the moment of sentencing. This violation is most acute in the Public Ministry agencies.
e) Half of those sentenced reported having confessed their participation in the crime because they were subjected to intimidation or torture.
f) There is a significant imbalance during the trial between the accused and the accuser to the detriment of the former. This imbalance is explained, both by the lack of an adequate defense, and by the absence of the judge in the conduct of the trial.
g) All this results in the accused being perceived, most of the time, as unjustly punished.
CONCLUSIONS AND FINAL REFLECTIONS
The prison institution in Mexico does not occupy an important place in the social scheme of containment and fight against the increase in crime. It seems to respond more to a differential punishment strategy directed towards those who could not avoid being prosecuted and sentenced, than to an articulated and consistent policy that confronts crime within a framework of respect for legality and constitutional guarantees. The most relevant conclusions that, in this way, we obtained both from the analysis of official data and from those produced by the survey, are the following:
1. During the last decade, the prison population in Mexico doubled from 87,000 inmates in 1992 to 191,000 in 2003. Initial evidence suggests that this increase is due more to the increase in the severity of punishments and the refusal to grant them pre-release benefits, rather than arrest a greater number of offenders.
2. The provision of basic services within the pressures, the maintenance of hygiene and safety, as well as the rehabilitation programs are in a state of profound deterioration. Inmates depend on their families for basic services, corruption is rampant, and arbitrariness and abuses violate minimal human rights within prisons.
3. In general, the country's prisons do not inhabit the criminals who have committed the most dangerous crimes, but the poor. The great mass of the prison population is made up of inmates responsible for relatively minor crimes, which contrasts with the magnitude and severity of the growing crime rate. The proportion of inmates incarcerated for serious crimes is very low, while there is evidence that this type of offender manages to evade criminal sanctions more frequently.
4. There is a lack of compliance with basic standards at all levels of the system of prosecution and administration of justice. In each of the instances, from the arrest of the detainee to his confinement in prison, there is an alarming lack of adherence to minimum standards of due legal process that undermine the credibility of the criminal justice system as a whole.
Finally, a reflection on the role played by prisons in Mexico in light of the function and objectives that any penitentiary institution can have. These can be: 1) An external deterrent instrument for those who consider committing crimes. For this, whoever violates the law must have a subjective feeling for which it is fairly likely that he will be apprehended and imprisoned. In the Mexican case, the vast majority consider that it is unlikely to be detected in an offense, therefore the deterrent effect is limited
2) It can be an instrument to contain and reduce crimes. If a serial murderer is behind bars, surely society will "save" a number of additional homicides. In this case it is necessary to imprison the largest number of criminals who commit numerous and costly crimes. Again, according to this sample, prisons concentrate more than 50% of inmates for minor offenses and most likely the vast majority of dangerous criminals remain free.
3) It can be an instrument of punishment or retribution. In this case, prisons are used as an instrument of punishment simply to penalize those who commit certain violations of coexistence. Although its scope is limited, the results of this survey appear to moderately support this goal. However, to be effective, the number of punishments appears to be limited and biased towards the most marginal sectors of society. In other words, punishments for powerful criminals are rare.
4) It can be a rehabilitation tool. The prison institution becomes a vehicle for rehabilitation and social reintegration for whom society has failed to provide adequate means for successful social participation. Despite this being the mandate of the Mexican constitution, the survey clearly shows us a total failure of this objective.
In summary, of the four major social objectives of the prison institution, in Mexico only the punishment effect (tit for tat) seems to fulfill, and even in a very limited way and biased towards the most unprotected sectors of society. The abandonment of the other three objectives should light red flags in society and authorities if it is to transcend the only vengeful aspect of the institution that it seems to fulfill.
FINAL PROPOSAL
TO ADAPT, ACCORDING TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK, THE CURRENT MODEL TO A BUSINESS REMUNERATION, WHICH GOVERN THE RULES AND METHODS OF THE MODERN ADMINISTRATION AND DIRECTION, WHICH HAVE PROVEN EFFECTIVENESS IN THE INITIATIVE INITIATIVE, INITIATIVE, INITIATIVE, INITIATIVE INITIATIVE A REAL OPPORTUNITY FOR THE OFFENDER TO REINSTATE IN SOCIETY AND REHABILITATED THROUGH WORK.
FOR WHICH THIS NEW MODEL PROPOSES THE TOTAL DISMANTLING OF THE CURRENT PRISON CENTERS, OF MEDIUM AND MAXIMUM SECURITY, SUBSTITUTING THEM BY COMMUNITY REINSERTION WORK CENTERS, WHERE THE SENTENCED WILL BE ABLE TO CHOOSE THEIR DEFINITION, DEFINITION AND THEIR DEFENSE AREA. AGRICULTURAL, AGRICULTURAL, INDUSTRIAL AND CHEMICAL PRODUCTION ACTIVITIES. IN WHICH THERE WILL BE A MINIMUM SALARY FROM WHICH STAY AND MEAL WILL BE DISCOUNTED, AND WILL BE DESTINED THROUGH A SYSTEM OF SOCIAL ASSISTANCE OR PROTECTION, THE REST IN A CHECK FIRST TO THE VICTIMS OF THE CRIME, TO THE EXTENT POSSIBLE TO REMEDY THE DAMAGE, TO LATER BE IN THE NAME OF THE FAMILY MEMBERS OR TRUST FOR THE CHILDREN OF THE OFFENDER, WHICH PAYS THEIR STUDIES AND BASIC NEEDS.
ALSO, THIS NEW MODEL INCLUDES THE CREATION OF MICRO AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES, SO THAT THE ALREADY REFORMED OFFENDER, HAVE A COMFORTABLE WORK CENTER AND AT THEIR CHOICE IN THE COMPANY ONCE THEIR STAY IN THE WORK CENTERS IS ENDED.
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