PROCEDURAL JUSTICE AND RULE OF LAW

Recently I focused my research on procedural justice and rule of law in prisons. Next to Dr. Deborah Koetzle and Dr. Jeff Mellow, between 2021 and 2024 I worked in Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama co-leading a project that had four objectives: (1) to learn about the experiences of individuals in prison with criminal proceedings and the rule of law, (2) to assess if the introduction of an accusatorial model of criminal prosecution impacted the experiences of the accused, (3) to identify obstacles that criminal justice operators face to provide better context to (4) the overall functioning of the criminal justice system. To do this we collaborated with local authorities and interviewed criminal justice operators, gathered official statistics, and implemented a survey to individuals in prison to learn about their experiences with criminal proceedings and their life in prison. 

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Our research findings provide an overview of the criminal justice system and an assessment of the progress each country has made in the consolidation of accusatorial principles. The timing of the implementation of the reforms in Guatemala (1994) and Honduras (2002) made it impossible for us to compare the experiences of individuals in prison with the accusatorial and the inquisitorial systems. Panama, where the reform began in 2011 and concluded in 2016, is the only country where such comparison was possible. Our most important contribution comes from the survey data we gathered in the three countries, data that shows the experiences of individuals in prison during their criminal proceedings, their perceptions of procedural justice, and their life in prison. We also compare adherence with rule of law within prisons, based on the UN's Rule of Law indicators framework.  Our final reports for each country can be found here:

• Guatemala (English or Spanish)

• Honduras (English or Spanish)

• Panama (English or Spanish)

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Selected media coverage of our work:

• Defensoría investiga sobre Sistema Penal Acusatorio del John Jay College neoyorquino (September 2, 2022)

• Universidad de Nueva York presentó ante las autoridades de la Dirección General del Sistema Penitenciario, el informe preliminar sobre el estudio de la transición del sistema inquisitivo al Sistema Penal Acusatorio (August 24, 2022)

• Universidad de Nueva York realiza estudio en centros penitenciarios (January 2, 2022)

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For the implementation of this project we also partnered with Joel Capellán, from Rowan University, and with the Instituto Universitario de Opinión Pública from the Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas in El Salvador.

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This research was done with the support of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) of the U.S. Department of State (SINLEC21GR3106, SINLEC21GR3109, and SINLEC21GR0432), and Emergency Funding Grants from the Office for the Advancement of Research at John Jay College.