Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic: National Security
detaining suspects for "investigation" or "interrogation." It has
been customary for the police to detain both suspects and witnesses
in a crime, deciding only after investigation which merit
release and which should be held further. Since the new government
took office in 1996, an effort has been made to
reduce abuses of the forty-eight-hour rule by placing lawyers
from the prosecutor's office in police stations.
During the closed pretrial investigative phase of the criminal
justice process, the state does not provide counsel to indigent
prisoners. A small public defender organization was introduced
in 1998 to assist indigent defendants in the Santo Domingo
area. Other indigent cases are assigned to part-time,
private attorneys. The courts rarely appoint defense lawyers in
misdemeanor cases.
Defendants awarded bail rarely face an actual trial. Those
denied bail may serve their entire sentences while awaiting
trial. Accordingly, the decision to grant bail often determines
whether an accused person will ever serve a prison sentence.
The justice system suffers seriously from chronic delays.
Many suspects undergo a long period of pretrial detention that
sometimes exceeds the maximum possible criminal sentence.
In 1998 the proportion of the prison population awaiting trial
was more than 75 percent. In the Santo Domingo National District,
which accounts for approximately 45 percent of all criminal
cases, the average pretrial detention declined from 13.8
months in 1996 to 6.5 months in 1998. However, the rest of the
country did not experience corresponding improvement.
In addition to the Supreme Court ofJustice, the constitution
established three basic types of courts: courts of appeal, courts
of first instance, and justice of the peace courts. There are special
courts for labor, traffic, administrative, and land matters.
Most misdemeanor offenses are tried by the justice of the
peace courts, of which there is one in each municipality or
township. The courts of first instance have original jurisdiction
for criminal felony cases. There are twenty-nine of these, one
for each province. Decisions may be, and regularly are,
appealed to one of the nation's seven courts of appeal. These
courts also have original jurisdiction over cases against judges
of courts of first instance, government attorneys, provincial
governors, and other specified officials.
Military and police courts have jurisdiction over members of
the security forces, but a military or police board frequently
remands cases involving capital crimes to civil courts. In 1996
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