Santo Domingo.-The National Public Defense Office (ONDP), has a deficit of lawyers, with only 200 permanent defenders and 121 hired nationwide, which is equivalent to one public defender for every 46,000 inhabitants.
The information was released on Tuesday by the entity’s national director, Rodolfo Valentín, who argued that in addition to increasing the number of personnel, it is also necessary to equalize their salaries to those of prosecutors.
“As the Constitutional Body of the Justice System, we need a larger budget, in order to meet the needs and requirements that the Senate of the Republic and the Judiciary have made. It is urgent to provide a quality service in the jurisdictions of: Dajabón, Santiago Rodríguez, María Trinidad Sánchez, Samaná, Las Matas de Farfán, Constanza, El Seibo, and Independencia Province. Access to justice is a fundamental right that has no limits,” Valentín said during a lunch with journalists.
He said that in the month of June the institution managed to admit 36 public defenders, graduates of the National School of the Judiciary (ENJ), this being the second class of this administration, highlighting that it has been with the same budget that they found in January of the year 2019.
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He highlighted that, to date, the National Public Defense Office has served 119,124 people, of which 113,472 are adults, and 5,652 adolescents.
For the cases prosecuted in adult matters, he specified a total of 19,418 cases entered. Imposition of preventive detention 4,839; economic guarantee of impossible fulfillment, 1,297; house arrest 122 and coercive measures other than preventive detention 7,910.
In the field of children and adolescents, he said that 1,216 cases were entered; with provisional deprivation of liberty 311 and detention at home 29 and precautionary measures other than provisional deprivation of liberty 568.
“The mission of the public defense is embodied in the voice and in the actions of each one of its defenders at the moment in which they clamor and demand respect for the dignity and fundamental rights of people in conflict with criminal law” he assured.
