CUSTODY HEARING ANDA THE PRINCIPLE OF THE PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE

Abstract

This study aims to presente the importance that introduction and practice of Custody Hearings had in Brazilian Legal System and in Criminal Procedural Law. The Custody Hearing is a non-innovative Project that is foreseen in the American Convention on Human Rights ratified by Brazil and integrated into the domestic legal system through Decrees 678/92 and 592/92, respectively. The methodology consisted of na exploratory research as well as a bibliographical one, constituted from books, articles and reports, aiming to demonstrate the great relevance that the Intitute has in relation to principle of presumption of innocence the “access to Criminal Jurisdiction”, the influence on the fight against prison overcrowding and in relation to the prevention of torture and mistreatment committed by military police to prisoners. It is importante to say that this instrument has a very importante role in quaranteeing Human Rights, having as a basic principle the presentation of the prisoner within 24 hours to be forwarded to a competente jurisdictional authority. Today, the Custody Hearing has been running for 8 years since the beginning of its implementation in 2015, with records of na intense decrease in the prison population with a reduction in the percentage of provisional arrests in the country from 40.13% of the total in 2014 to 26,48% in 2022.