34 on their hands, changes in their perspective on the world and on life. The daughters of Beatrice and Mr. Tibi feel that they lost their family due to the facts. The psychological and emotional damage suffered by Mr. Tibi, Mrs. Baruet and the girls due to his detention and imprisonment are deep and long lasting. As measures of reparation, they require both psychological treatment and that justice be done, which is the first step to feel that there is an acknowledgment of the suffering. f) Expert opinion of Santiago Argüello Mejía, attorney at law The oldest statistics refer to five or six per cent of the prison population accused of drug trafficking crimes. The statistics show that in 1997 and 1998, the figure was forty-two percent. This situation has to do with over-criminalization of consumption, possession, and trafficking of narcotics. Protracted incarceration prior to sentencing is currently the most serious problem of the criminal justice system in Ecuador. The twenty-eight month period endured by Mr. Tibi to prove his innocence is a good average of what someone needs in Ecuador to be released from prison despite being innocent. Despite the constitutional and secondary norms, the principle of presumption of innocence is not in force, even less so in regards to drug-related accusations where incarceration before sentencing and other serious types of abuse are frequent. Life in the Penitenciaría del Litoral reflects a system of injustice and commoditization of every favor or advantage for the inmates. Use of the cell called “quarantine” in the Penitenciaría del Litoral is an indisputable reality. It is a nauseous space with no services, roughly 120 square meters, where up to three hundred inmates sleep on the ground. As bathrooms they use holes in the floor and tubes from which water occasionally comes out. Due to the population and to the limited space, the inmates’ breathing becomes difficult. Generally only indictees are placed in the “quarantine;” however, it has also become a place where convicted criminals are placed as punishment. The “quarantine” zone is part of a business. It is at the entrance of the Penitenciaría del Litoral and all the inmates who enter that penitentiary are taken there and threatened with remaining there. The threat makes the inmates of the Ecuadorian penal network definitely be willing to pay almost any price to be allocated one of the privileged cells. The prison staff, in complicity with some inmates, participates in and validates a space rental and purchase system, and organizes trafficking in drugs, alcohol, and weapons, which increases the privileges, the discrimination, and worsens the violence. In conclusion, Mr. Tibi’s statements are a supplementary practical demonstration of that phenomenon. At the Penitenciaría del Litoral, inmates without financial means “quarantine” zone and when “there is nothing more to be done with have no money to take from them,” they are sent to one of the cell penitentiary center, the system for classification of the detainees is financial capacity. remain in the them and they blocks. At this based on their Human rights organizations have recorded numerous complaints in regards torture in Ecuadorian prisons. In 1997, the complaints received at the Comisión Ecuménica de Derechos Humanos (CEDH) against penitentiary guards and policemen included three

Seleccionar párrafo de destino3

Conectar a un párrafo
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Añadir a la tabla de contenidos