La excepcionalidad de la prisión preventiva como mecanismo para garantizar el principio y derecho constitucional a la libertad personal.

Abstract

This research addresses the problem of the excessive use of the personal precautionary measure of pretrial detention, over alternative precautionary measures, which violates the right to individual liberty and contributes to prison overcrowding in Ecuador. The excessive use of pretrial detention by justice officials is a result of an increasingly punitive State, which seeks to address citizen security problems at the expense of constitutional rights enjoyed by all individuals, even those under investigation or prosecution. The methodology used is based on a qualitative approach, based on a documentary analysis of national and international legal doctrine and regulations, and a jurisprudential study of the Constitutional Court, the National Court of Justice, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, as well as reports issued by international organizations related to the problem of this research. This demonstrates that Ecuador does not comply with the exceptional nature of pretrial detention. As a result, it has been possible to demonstrate the importance of justice officials, when requesting and granting the precautionary measure of pretrial detention, taking into account the right to personal liberty, and ensuring that this meets the criteria of legality, necessity, rationality, proportionality, and the legitimate purposes of this measure, given that this measure is exceptional by nature.