After the recent unrest with numerous deaths in prisons, the Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso pardoned prisoners in order to relieve the overcrowded prisons.
Severely or terminally ill prisoners and those who were involved in traffic offenses that did not lead to injuries or death are pardoned, as the communications ministry announced on Monday.
How many prisoners this affects was not disclosed.
The pardons are part of a government plan to combat prison violence stemming from disputes between criminal gangs over drug trafficking.
Most recently, at least 68 people were killed in bloody clashes between rival gangs in a prison in the city of Guayaquil.
The inmates attacked each other with firearms, machetes and explosives.
The government's plan also provides for the use of the armed forces and police to maintain order in the prisons.
Ecuador's prisons have been the scene of several massacres, including a September riot, one of the worst in Latin American history, in which 119 prisoners were killed.
The country has 65 prisons with a capacity of 30,000 places, but they house almost 39,000 prisoners.
Among them are 15,000 who have not yet been convicted.