Custody hearing resulting from fulfillment of a cautionary arrest order: perspectives from an empirical study developed in the jurisdiction of Pelotas/RS

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the institution of the custody hearing, particularly the procedure carried out in cases of provisional arrest and its impact on judicial decisions on the libertarian status of the citizen in custody. The work was prepared through bibliographical and documentary research, and through a qualitative-quantitative empirical investigation carried out in the jurisdiction of Pelotas/RS, which focused on hearings that took place in 2022 in cases of precautionary detention. Based on the theoretical and empirical data evaluated, the conclusion presented in the article is that the custody hearing is an extremely important institution for the democratization of the Brazilian criminal process and for the preservation of human and fundamental rights, but that its insertion into the legal system and broad implementation, to date, have not made it possible to reduce the number of prisons, especially preventive detention, largely due to the punitive culture and inquisitorial rationality that predominate in the criminal procedural area.

Keywords
Custody Hearings; Preventive Detention; Criminal Procedure; Authoritarianism