The National Association of Criminology Researchers (Spanish acronym: ANIC) is trying to file a lawsuit against the Ministry of Justice in Costa Rica over the release of nearly 6,000 convicted criminals who can no longer be housed by the national prison system.

According to a news report filed by Gustavo Retana of daily tabloid Diario Extra, the Contentious Affairs Tribunal rejected the lawsuit filed by ANIC, which posits that the Ministry of Justice has not called upon criminologists to study the impact of releasing thousands of convicted criminals before their sentences have been served.

The nearly 6,000 convicts have been released under the administration of President Luis Guillermo Solis as a last resource. As has been reported on numerous occasions by The Costa Rica Star over the last few years, prison overcrowding was first detected during the administration of former President Laura Chinchilla, who made good on her campaign promise to “clean up the streets” and increase security across Costa Rica.

The security plan executed by former President Chinchilla was successful in many aspects; however, it came at a substantial cost that added to the deficit and ended up overcrowding the existing prison infrastructure.

ANIC officials cited that most of the convicts released in the last few years were serving sentences related to aggravated robbery, which is a crime that may involve threats ranging from loud verbal demands to brandishing weapons and from battery to murder. The released aggravated robbers outnumber non-violent drug offenders by nearly 900.

As it happens, the Contentious Tribunal rejected the lawsuit by ANIC officials not because it lacked merit but because it was filed at the wrong venue. The Contentious Tribunal is a Kafkaesque court that deals with nebulous cases resulting from government bureaucracy, but the magistrates determined that they do not have jurisdiction in this particular matter.

During a Legislative Assembly session earlier this week, lawmakers discussing the matter above, and one of them remarked: “isn’t it odd that criminologists don’t know the appropriate venue to file their lawsuit?”