the chances of a violation of the rights of detained people. It [further] poses a threat to the right to life, security and safety, and the right to health, education, contact with the outside world and other rights. [In addition, it influences their] opportunity to benefit from rehabilitation and reintegration programs, and public services. Persons belonging to minorities have a greater chance to be exposed to violations of their rights in regards to health [issues]. At the level of pre-trial detention, we need to mention that the percentage of people arrested reaches 45%-60%. This means that they make up the largest percentage of prison inmates and a person’s period of detention in the pre-trial phase reaches up to 3 years. In the event that they are from minorities the chance that they get a good legal representative, are released on bail or on [other] precautionary measures, decreases. The solution to this phenomenon needs to be a review of the criminal policies and adopting a reformist punitive approach based on rehabilitation and reintegration, reducing the use of detention and supporting the adoption of non-custodial measures. I emphasize here that the solution is not to build new prisons, but rather for the administrative system to adopt the protection of minority rights and respond to their needs. Fifth le ve l: Judicial me asure s and imposing punishme nt In many justice systems, we find that the pursued criminal policy and the enforcement policy on punishment adopted are insular in their nature and tend towards a philosophy of deterrence and of emphasizing punishment, more than a philosophy of reform, rehabilitation and reintegration. We find, for example, that the principle of proportionality between the crime and the punishment is marred by numerous deficiency in many [justice] systems, so that we find that in many countries there is a tough policy in regards to the criminalization of drugs and other issues, which reflects on the justice system. Further, [we find that] the policy of criminalization affects the general political and security atmosphere. A fact which can be observed through the stricter imposition of punishment on a group and not others, because of political, racial grounds and so on. The death penalty may be one of most important indicators of a malfunction, as studies have shown that the most susceptible groups to the death penalty are the poorest people, followed by politicians. Further, resorting excessively to a punishment of detention in comparison to resorting to non-custodial measures, despite today’s international trend to push to adopt non-custodial measures and to encourage resorting to them in greater extent for some groups, such as juveniles. [In this case] detention needs to be the last resort after exhausting all possible measures. The Bangkok rules for [the treatment of] women prisoners and non-custodial measures for women offenders encourage resorting to non-custodial measures for women.