On any given day, an estimated three million people are behind bars awaiting trial. Some will be detained for a few days or weeks, but many will spend months and even years in detention, languishing under worse conditions than convicted prisoners.

Throughout this ordeal, many will never speak to a lawyer or receive any advice about their rights. When they finally do reach a courtroom, a significant number of people will be found innocent, while some—having never been provided legal assistance—will be wrongly convicted.

It is during this time before trial—a period of months or years, often without access to legal counsel—that people brought into the justice system are the most vulnerable to abuse. People in pretrial detention are routinely assaulted, mistreated, and in some instances even tortured to extract confessions or solicit bribes. Held in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, they also face higher risks of contracting infectious diseases.

The repercussions of prolonged detention reverberate beyond holding cells. When someone is detained, their family may go weeks, months, or even years without a crucial source of income for food and shelter. This problem disproportionately affects poor communities, as people without the means to afford legal assistance in the first place are most vulnerable to spending prolonged periods in pretrial detention. Meanwhile, their families slip deeper into poverty.

Moreover, excessive pretrial detention is at times used as an improper means of extracting a confession or encouraging a guilty plea. Persons in pretrial detention are more likely to be convicted and sentenced to prison than are defendants released prior to trial. In this way, unrestricted pretrial detention undermines the presumption of innocence.

The rule of law is fundamental to all open societies. Fair and effective justice systems, however, must be responsible not only for safeguarding and protecting the rights of the victims, but also the rights of the accused. International donors have largely ignored the challenges of pretrial justice, despite the high stakes for all parties and the significant potential for abuse during this phase of the criminal process.
 
The Open Society Justice Initiative supports criminal justice reform around the world—especially in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, where the overuse of pretrial detention and access to affordable legal counsel are particular problems. The Justice Initiative works to develop alternatives to pretrial detention, broaden access to competent legal representation for poor detainees, and promote new alliances for reform among donors, experts, and practitioners.