Asunción, Jan 2 (EFE).- 68.02% of the total prison population in Paraguay, which reached 16,536 inmates in 2022, remains in preventive detention, a period that can last between six months and five years, depending on the type crime and regulations, denounced the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture (MNP).
In addition, in its evaluation of the prison situation, recorded in its 2022 Statistical Yearbook, the entity calculated that the overcrowding in the Tacumbú prison, the main prison in the country, is 607%.
“There is an abuse of pretrial detention,” Orlando Castillo, commissioner of the MNP, told Efe.
The MNP, which prepared its report based on statistics collected between January and October, detailed that the prison population was 15,151 people in 2021, 13,821 in 2020 (the year in which the pandemic was declared) and 15,477 in 2019.
Castillo warned that last year the rate of admissions to prisons was exceeded, since at the end of October there were 1,400 new inmates, compared to the 1,000 inmates that were registered every year, with the exception of 2020.
The percentage of women deprived of liberty in 2022 was 4.58% (757 inmates) and that of minors was 1.2% (205).
The expert pointed out that 87.88% of adolescents deprived of liberty -almost nine out of ten- are under preventive detention, compared to 12.12% who already have a sentence.
“The juvenile penal system is much more rigorous than the adult system,” said the official, who underlined the difference of about 20 points between the population of adolescents held in pretrial detention compared to that of adults.
Regarding the period established for preventive detention, Castillo explained that “it is determined by the punishable act” and the regulatory framework applied.
Thus, there are cases in which a preventive detention of between six months and a maximum of two years is stipulated, and serious crimes in which the provisional deprivation of liberty can be extended to 4 or 5 years.
OVERCROWDING
The MNP also drew attention to the overcrowding in prisons and places the Villarrica penitentiary (center-south), with a population of 511 inmates, as the most affected in the country.
Human rights organizations estimate the overcrowding in that center at 964%, compared to 176% for the Ministry of Justice.
In turn, Tacumbú, located in Asunción, the capital of the country, houses 2,914 inmates, which represents, in figures from the authorities, an overcrowding of 190% and that of human rights defenders of 607%.
On the other hand, the Mechanism warned about the prevalence of tuberculosis infections in local prisons.
The figures from this body indicate that some 3,790 adult inmates contracted tuberculosis in 2022, with July (405), August (432), September (451) and October (448) being the months with the highest number of patients.
In this regard, Castillo stated that it has been detected that tuberculosis in these centers not only corresponds to imported cases, but that these places have become “a focus of infection for society.” EFE
