Increased Penalties, Prison Overcrowding, and the Crisis of the Ecuadorian Prison System: A Criminological Analysis
Keywords:
Penal populism, prison overcrowding, criminal policyAbstract
This article analyzes the increase in criminal penalties under Ecuador's Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code and its relationship with prison overcrowding from a criminological and human rights perspective. Its main objective is to determine whether harsher sentencing has contributed to reducing crime by examining its proportionality, criminal policy foundations, impact on the penitentiary system, and consistency with international standards. To achieve this, the study examines the evolution of legal reforms to the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code between 2014 and 2024, with particular emphasis on Article 220, as well as penal populism, deterrence theory, prison overcrowding, pretrial detention, institutional corruption, the situation of incarcerated women, and the rehabilitative purpose of punishment. The research adopts a mixed, descriptive explanatory, and longitudinal approach with gender and intersectional perspectives. It is based on documentary and bibliographic research supported by legal hermeneutic, comparative, and theoretical deductive methods, complemented by a review of the scientific literature. The findings show that increasing criminal penalties has not significantly reduced crime and, instead, has contributed to mass incarceration, prison overcrowding, prison violence, and the weakening of rehabilitation and social reintegration programs. The study concludes that this policy reflects a reactive approach associated with penal populism and is incompatible with human dignity, the principle of proportionality, and the principle of minimum criminal intervention. Consequently, it advocates a criminal policy focused on prevention, restorative justice, social reintegration, and the effective protection of human rights.
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