Priority Attention and the Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty in Ecuador

Abstract

In recent years, Ecuador's prisons have been overcrowded with people deprived of liberty, despite the existence of a technical body responsible for the evaluation of policies, the administration of detention centers and the setting of standards of compliance with the purposes of the National System of Social Rehabilitation, the rights and priority attention of the incarcerated remains a constant struggle of inmates that has resulted in hundreds of deaths, thousands of tortured and injured. The study is located in the Social Rehabilitation Centers of the provinces of Pastaza, Cotopaxi, Tungurahua and Chimborazo; the population involved in the research is made up of officials and public servants of the mentioned prisons and by those deprived of liberty who are and who served their sentence, to whom a questionnaire of multiple-choice questions was applied. The results allow to know the reality currently experienced by persons deprived of their liberty, the procedures applied within the social rehabilitation process, the human and constitutional rights that are most frequently violated inside and outside of Ecuador's prisons, and, shows that in social rehabilitation centers, the priority attention required by the Constitution of the Republic for priority attention groups does not exist and is not respected.