Mexico: four out of 10 inmates were not sentenced or were in pretrial detention in 2022

Thirty-nine percent of people incarcerated in Mexico's federal, state or specialized prisons have not received a sentence or are in pretrial detention. Specifically, these are 88,172 of the 226,116 prisoners.

According to the report “National Census of the Federal Penitentiary System 2023” from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), the number of incarcerated or "population deprived of liberty" who have not received a sentence or are in preventive detention had a slight decrease (5%) in 2022 with respect to 2021, when the number of prisoners under these conditions was 92,856. More than 38% of the total number of men and 49% of the total number of women have these statuses.

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On the other hand, 23,653 inmates did not have a final sentence in 2022; 111,162 already had a final sentence; and 3,129 did not explain their status.

Half of those who were not sentenced are being held in pretrial detention

Of those who are behind bars without having received their sentence, more than half (50.2%) are in informal pretrial detention. That is, cases in which the courts have ordered their imprisonment for crimes such as "organized crime, intentional homicide, rape, kidnapping, human trafficking, crimes committed with violent means such as weapons and explosives, as well as serious crimes determined by law against the security of the nation, the free development of the personality and health," explains the Mexican Senate.

On the other hand, 23.9% are in justified pretrial detention. This situation occurs when courts analyze each prisoner in more depth, assessing certain aspects such as the risk of escape or whether the victims or witnesses of the case in which the prisoner is involved are at risk. Of those who have not yet been sentenced, 11.4% are in prison under another legal status, and the remaining 14.5% did not specify what type of legal status they are under.