Citizen security is one of the issues that most concerns the population. For this reason, the fact that many criminals are on the street a few hours after being arrested creates controversy among citizens. Given the situation, La Voz digital raised the following question in its latest survey: Who would you blame for criminals being on the street a few hours after committing a crime? Among the 2,715 votes (one of the highest since the launch of these surveys), 57% of voters (1,564) pointed out that the problem lies in the laws because they are not sufficiently restrictive for crimes considered minor.
72 hours maximum
The truth is that current legislation establishes that the maximum time a person can be detained is 72 hours while all investigations are carried out regarding the crime committed and they are brought before the judge. In fact, it will be the magistrate who decides whether the accused person is released while the trial comes out or if they are placed in pre-trial detention.
Normally judges opt for the first option. This is because in most cases the people arrested are accused of minor crimes, so if they reoffend the entire process is repeated and over time the trial comes out with all the accumulated cases. However, the second possibility only applies to people whose crimes are considered serious.
Other options
Following the order of votes from highest to lowest, the second most participated answer (39%, which represents 1,077 votes) was the one that blames politicians to the extent that they do not improve either the laws or the prison infrastructure.
One of the most notable data from the survey is that only 2% of the participants (60) believe that the problem lies with the judges because they underestimate some crimes without realizing that most criminals are repeat offenders. Finally, only 14 people voted that the situation stems from the overcrowding that exists in the Tahíche prison, which means that the most dangerous criminals go to the same prison.
The change in legislation can only occur at the hands of politicians, who are the ones who, if necessary, would have to promote a change in the current legislation to establish other characteristics for holding a person once they have committed a crime.
Infrastructure
Finally, in the case of Lanzarote there is great sensitivity about the situation of the infrastructure, since the only prison on the Island is not sufficient to house all the criminals. It must be taken into account that a total of 160 inmates live in the penitentiary center with only 44 cells. Initially, this infrastructure was built as a preventive headquarters for inmates. However, today it has the worst ratio between the number of cells and the number of prisoners, with a proportion of 3.63 people per unit.