Experts Examine Global Toll of Pretrial Detention

Criminal justice and law reform experts, including representatives of the Justice Initiative, met in Cape Town on Friday, June 8, 2007, to examine the excessive use of pretrial detention—the practice of holding in jail suspects who are awaiting trial, rather than releasing them on bail or other surety. While acknowledging that there are proper uses of pretrial detention—such as when a suspect is a risk to flee—the experts focused on the high costs of pretrial detention.

According to Martin Schönteich, senior legal officer for the Justice Initiative, these costs include lost economic productivity of those locked away, economic and psychological strains on the families of the detained, and public health costs borne by society when detainees are released, often after being exposed to infectious diseases while in jail. The Friday's meeting looked at several different efforts to reform excessive use of pretrial detention, including different approaches taken in South Africa, Malawi and Nigeria; those reform efforts will be the subject of a forthcoming issue of Justice Initiatives.