Criminal justice reform and court-imposed bail in Mexico: an empirical report

ABSTRACT This article furthers the discussion on bail through an analysis of the conditions under which this measure is used in Mexico, a country which has recently reformed its penal system (2008–2016) by introducing new procedural rules, which seek to reduce the use of pretrial detention. The study is based on a statistical-descriptive examination of 1,537 judicial cases in which judges chose to impose either pretrial detention or bail. Our findings indicate that, obtaining bail, rather than pretrial detention, is related to both the specific nature of the crime as well as the circumstances of the criminal investigation. Furthermore, our data confirm that pretrial decisions can affect the entire course of a case. In our sample, defendants who were granted bail were more likely to receive non-condemnatory sentences than those who awaited trial in prison.