Brazil's Prison Debacle
Salla, Fernando
In the early afternoon of February 18, 2001, during family visiting hours, the biggest prison rebellion in Brazil's history began in a few prisons in the state of Sio Paulo. Within hours, as...
...ing a growth of 41% in the rate of incarceration over a period of five years...
...Some prisons house three-to-five-times more inmates than their capacity...
...A lack of official diligence in combating violence inside the prisons has also resulted in a recent increase in killings of inmates by other inmates...
...The rebellion was a striking symptom of the current crisis in Brazil's prison system...
...Although the process of democratization began in the early 1980s, Brazilian police and the prison systems have shown themselves reluctant to change the authoritarian practices inherited from the period of military dictators...
...In the face of the rapid increase in the prison population, state governments have not been able to respond to the demand for an increasing number of new cells...
...In some Brazilian states the situation is even worse...
...The other 140 deaths were homicides committed among inmates-at a rate of 0.6 per 1,000 inmates, at least 8 times the rate in North American prisons...
...Official government data on such killings is scanty, but the Teot6nio Vilela Commission for Human Rights, a non-governmental organization, uses press accounts to collect data on prison deaths and reports that such deaths have increased over the last five years...
...The rate of incarceration has soared over the last three decades: In 1969, Brazil had 30 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, by 1995 it had reached a rate of 95.4 per 100,000...
...Police violence against citizens is common: In 1998, the Sdo Paulo police killed 525 citizens...
...inmates who break prison rules are subject to degrading, inhumane and illegal punishment like being locked up in dark, unventilated cells without sanitary facilities or food...
...Brazilian inmates also routinely face more serious threats: torture and even death...
...Homicides among prisoners are increasingly connected to conflicts between organized criminal gangs for hegemony and control over the mass of inmates and over illegal activities inside prisons, such as traffic in drugs, firearms, and other contraband...
...More training for police and correction officers might reduce the level of abuse in the prisons...
...Overcrowding fuels escape attempts and mass rebellions...
...The causes of this rapid growth include increasing crime rates combined with the public's ready acceptance of the argument that harsher sentences are a deterrent to crime In Brazil, the federal government does not have its own prison system...
...Translated from the Portuguese by Andrea Kouklanakis...
...Before it was over, 19 inmates were dead...
...These include torture and summary execution of criminals and suspects being held in police custody...
...Despite the fact that Brazil has specific laws against torture, these have not been enforced, as a United Nations report and the government itself have recently recognized...
...The commission said that the police and prison authorities do sometimes investigate charges of corruption within their ranks, but few of those found responsible are ever punished...
...Existing mechanisms for reporting and verifying such practices are still tenuous and often ineffective in punishing those responsible for abuses...
...Police sometimes torture suspected criminals in order to obtain information and confession...
...More remarkable is that in the year 2000 this rate reached 134.9, indicatFernando Salla is Senior Researcher at the Center for the Study of Violence, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil...
...What's more, conservtripped of their clothes after surrendering at the Carandiru Prison, Latin America's largest ulo February 19, 2001...
...if the law is to be effectively used to rein in those state agents guilty of torture, indifference, or collusion with criminal activities inside prisons, a way must be found to overcome the resistance of police and prison guards to function as part of a democratic society...
...Within hours, as television and radio spread word of the uprising to outlying units, some 28,000 inmates in 29 different prisons had joined in...
...Overcrowded prisons contribute to violations of inmates' rights specified in Brazilian laws as well as international treaties...
...In the prison system, between 1998 and 1999, 210 inmates involved in trafficking had the same success...
...The inmates buy and use Inmates are s jail, in Sdo Pa cell phones to order criminal activities from inside...
...More is needed in the way of legal aid, productive activities and educational opportunities for inmates...
...Many believe that the Sdo Paulo prison rebellion of last February could not have become so massive, involving so many prisons and so many thousands of inmates, without the participation of criminal groups as well as corrupt officials...
...Many of these deaths result when no safe NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 8UPDATE / BRAZIL place within the prison is provided for inmates who were convicted of sexual or other crimes considered especially reprehensible by other inmates, or when rival inmates and groups are placed in the same units or halls...
...In general, there is a strong esprit de corps that protects corrupt police and officials...
...Brazil's prison population now stands-as of December 2000-at around 212,000 inmates...
...Although in some units the revolt probably spread spontaneously, fed by widespread prisoner discontent, in others a criminal group called Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) may have organized and sparked the rebellion...
...Official data from the state of Sio Paulo, whose prisons hold 40% of Brazil's inmates, show 42 homicides in a population of 33,382 inmates in 1996, a rate of 1.25 per 1,000...
...Of the 156 cases of prisoner death the Commission collected in 2000, only 16 inmates died as a result of police action during escape attempts or rebellion...
...In this case, it became evident that the group had power inside the biggest prison system in the country, and state and federal authorities were forced to recognize that power and take a series of measures to combat the group's activities...
...There is also some speculation that sectors of the prison staff, unhappy with the political orientation of the administration, may have been in collusion with rebellion organizers in some prison units...
...Powerful members of criminal groups involved with drug trafficking, bank robberies, freight robberies and fraud find it relatively easy to buy their way out of police precincts, local jails and even penitentiaries...
...Killings of one inmate by another are also increasing, a consequence of the lack of effective oversight, as well as the increased activity by criminal gangs inside the prisons, especially in the states of Rio de Janeiro and Sdo Paulo...
...The crisis in the prison system has deepened in recent years, and its resolution depends on initiatives that go beyond an increase in the number of new cells...
...Corruption and the impunity of police and prison authorities underlie the crisis, making it one that will be difficult to overcome...
...In some units, the rebellion was soon contained, in others it extended until the following day...
...There is much evidence of official corruption, of influence peddling, and of official collusion with or indifference to criminal activity...
...ative state governments, authoritarian and little interested in the protection of human rights, do not create or stimulate active mechanisms for the examination of irregularities...
...A commission set up by the Sdo Paulo State House of Representatives verified that in the last five years 31% of accused drug traffickers detained in police precincts and in public jails under police administration had escaped...
...But the greatest challenge is to implement initiatives that reach to the roots of the problem...
...Overcrowding means basic living conditions like hygiene and air quality are deteriorating in many prisons and prisoners' daily existence is full of internal tensions...
...in 1999, the number increased to 664, according to the Sdo Paulo police ombudsman...
...He is the author of As Prisces em So Paulo, 18221940 (Annablume, 1999...
...the states are responsible for the police and penitentiary systems...
...Formed in 1993, this group has reportedly been responsible for earlier rebellions in SSo Paulo state prisons, though the authorities have previously minimized its role and level of influence...
...The system's chronic problems-torture and maltreatment of inmates, overcrowding, a lack of medical, social and legal assistance for inmates and an insufficient number of work and education programs-have recently been compounded by a mushrooming prison population and the emergence of organized crime groups within the prisons...
...After prison rebellions are contained, police or prison staff often beat and humiliate prisoners and destroy their personal belongings...
...The inmates took prison guards and hundreds of visiting family members, including children, hostage...
Vol. 35 • September 2001 • No. 2
