The Supreme Court accepted two amparos presented by public criminal defenders of Viña del Mar in favor of accused persons who, after the procedure was suspended by article 458 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, ordered their provisional internment, which was carried out in prisons.
ADMINISTRATIVE EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY
The first action was deduced by the chief local defender, Alejandra Pizarro Catalán, regarding her client who was carrying out the measure in the sexual diversity module of the Quillota prison.
The Criminal Chamber resolved that “although the design and implementation of public policies is the exclusive responsibility of the State Administration, it is not possible to ignore the fact that public organizations – among which is the Dr. Philippe Pinel Psychiatric Institute or the Transitory Forensic Psychiatric Unit El Salvador – must ensure compliance with the principle of administrative effectiveness and efficiency, enshrined in various provisions of Law No. 18,575, Constitutional Organic General Bases of State Administration.
He added that “article 3, paragraph 2 of the aforementioned Law provides: “The State Administration must observe the principles of responsibility, efficiency, effectiveness, coordination, ex officio promotion of the procedure, challengeability of administrative acts, control, probity, transparency and administrative publicity, and will guarantee the due autonomy of the intermediate groups of society to fulfill their own specific purposes, respecting the right of people to carry out any economic activity in accordance with the Political Constitution and the laws.
It adds that article 5, paragraph 1 states that “the authorities and officials must ensure the efficient and appropriate administration of public means and the due fulfillment of the public function.” That, in the same order of ideas, article 11 of the same law relates efficiency and effectiveness with the opportunity in which the administrative action is carried out, by providing that “The authorities and heads, within the scope of their competence and in the corresponding levels, will exercise permanent hierarchical control of the functioning of the organizations and the actions of their dependent personnel. This control will extend to both the efficiency and effectiveness in fulfilling the established purposes and objectives, as well as the legality and timeliness of the actions.
He stated that “article 53 links the principles of efficiency and effectiveness with administrative honesty by establishing that: “The general interest requires the use of suitable means of diagnosis, decision and control, to achieve, within the legal order, efficient and effective. It is expressed in the upright and correct exercise of public power by the administrative authorities; in the reasonableness and impartiality of their decisions; in the correctness of execution of the rules, plans, programs and actions; in the ethical and professional integrity of the administration of the public resources that are managed; in the issuance in the fulfillment of its legal functions, and in citizen access to administrative information, in accordance with the law.
PSYCHIATRIC EVALUATION
It resolved that “the protected person is formalized as the perpetrator of the crime of robbery in an inhabited place, subject to the precautionary measure of provisional detention, as well as in eight other cases that are being pursued against him for facts that have the characteristics of a crime of similar entity.” , all those whose procedure has been suspended and are waiting for a psychiatric evaluation to be carried out by the competent health organization, in accordance with the provisions of article 464 of the Criminal Procedure Code, without to date – and despite the multiple requests made and measures adopted -, the order of the Control Court has been complied with, which leads to indefinitely prolonging the deprivation of liberty of the protected person, with possible harmful effects on the fundamental rights of the protected person, antecedents that make necessary – in the opinion of this Supreme Court -, the sanitary measures that are pertinent are adopted, as a matter of urgency, aimed at carrying out the psychiatric evaluation decreed in the records, as well as their admission to a suitable module in a penal facility, compatible with the health situation.
It concludes that “the aforementioned makes it evident that the authorities of the reporting hospital facilities have openly violated the principles indicated in the previous recitals, denying the admission of the accused in the Psychiatric Unit of said hospitals and indefinitely postponing the preparation of the psychiatric report. mandated to be carried out in his regard, threatening his individual security, since this means that the accused – subject to provisional confinement – remains deprived of liberty in a penal facility, openly contravening the provisions of article 457 and 464 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the principle of responsibility that informs the actions of all the public authorities of a Democratic State of Law, with respect to the decisions they adopt and the silences they incur, without the reasons provided by the Management and Headquarters of the aforementioned care centers being sufficient to deny comply with the precautionary measure decreed in accordance with the law, especially if this means keeping the criminal proceedings against the protected party indefinitely suspended, while the preparation of the psychiatric expertise ordered to be prepared is pending.
RIGHT TO PERSONAL LIBERTY
In the second appeal, deduced by the defender Marco Martínez Lazcano, the Guarantee Court of Viña del Mar ordered admission to module 117 of the Valparaíso Penitentiary Complex.
The defense argued that the measure was not executed despite the efforts made and the time that had elapsed. Inactivity that harms the right to personal freedom and individual security of the protected person with respect to whom it is presumed to be in a situation of mental insanity.
The Court resolved to transfer him to the UFT from the CDP of Valparaíso or to another psychiatric hospital, in the Valparaíso Region or in the Metropolitan Region, admitting him within a period of 72 business hours from the date of compliance with the resolution.
