The Jails Are Full, Preventive Detention A Major Reason
The judges, at the request of the Ministerio Público, hand out "preventive detention" measures right and left and is now become a problem for the jail system, as it struggles to handle the load.

The San Sebastían jail alone has some 650 detainees who spend up to as much as year waiting trial, only to be set free in the end because there was no case or sufficient proof, which costs the public millions of colones each and every month.

It is for that reason, José Tomás Guevara, Fernando Gamboa and Evidelio Quiel, have formed a protest movement andwill be making a formal complaint before the various institutions (Corte Suprema, Colegio de Abogados, Corte Interamericana Derechos Humanos and the Defensoría de los Habitantes), not to order so many to "preventive detention", especially in the cases of those falsely accused.

"The Ministerio Público has the perception that every accused is a criminal, breaking from the constitutional principle of innocence until guilt is proven", said the group is asking for the judicial system to look at alternatives to preventive detention, except in cases of heinous crimes, where there is the real possibility of fleeing the country and justice and for those who will hamper the judicial investigation.

The group adds that prosecutors use preventive detention without considering the entire facts in the case or  the health of the detainee. "We have people in jail in wheelchairs, broken bones, over the age of 60, those who are mentally retarded, etc.

In addition, there are many who are sitting it out in jail on false witness and testimony and fabricated evidence", the group said.

Every day, public defenders handle between 200 and 300 cases and are unable to cope with the load, while private defenders want payment up front and leave their clients sitting in jail if they cannot pay the fee.