Hygiene, food and health

Third Chapter | Ongoing violation :: two years since the crisis in Pedrinhas

Based on interviews conducted with dozens of prisoners during the inspections over the past two years, the organizations concluded that the causes of the disgust and riots among the prisoners go beyond the violence of the disputes between rival gangs.

“The prisoners themselves usually call the riots ‘demands’. In the vast majority of cases, they are only asking not to have to eat spoiled food, not to have to drink dirty water and to be able to sleep without rats and cockroaches. It is not about a show of power, but about respect for human dignity,” said Luís Antônio Pedrosa, president of the Human Rights Commission of the OAB-MA.

The combination of insalubrity, appalling hygiene conditions and spoiled food causes many of the prisoners to fall ill, and it also generates a climate of permanent disgust among the inmates.

“We know we are here because we are paying for our mistakes, but we are also human beings and we are being treated like ‘wild beasts’,” said one of the detainees from the CCPJ (Prisoner Custody Center). “Tell them [the prison board] that if our situation doesn’t improve, we will go on a hunger strike,” threatened another.

According to Pedrosa, during the last riot at the CDP (Provisional Detention Center), in early November 2015, the prisoners were demanding an improvement in the conditions for serving their sentences, better hygiene in the areas reserved for conjugal visits and permission to receive food from their families – an alternative to the meals provided by Masam, the catering company that supplies all the units at the complex.

“The food has already turned sour by the time we get it. I can’t bear the smell of this food, let alone eat it,” said one inmate from the CDP. “Everyone here is starving and malnourished,” he added.

Complaints like this were heard in all the cells at the units that were visited. The quality of the food and the lack of set meal times are the main grievances of the prisoners. The waste bins outside the cells are full of half-eaten meals at lunchtime. Often, the prisoners prefer to go hungry. The sour stench of the food mixed with the smell of mold, sewage and unwashed bodies is suffocating.

The area looks fit only for the rats and cockroaches that infest the walls and hallways. The presence of these pests is so bad and so bothersome that the prisoners put their sandals between the bars to try, unsuccessfully, to block their entrance.

At all the units visited, it was found that the prisoners only receive one uniform – two shirts, a pair of shorts, a pair of trousers and sandals – to last them months. Often the shirts are used as floor cloths to soak up the water that seeps into the cells. With no soap, the detainees wash themselves using the laundry detergent they receive when cleaning products are distributed.

According to the report of the National Mechanism to Combat and Prevent Torture, each ‘hygiene kit’, which consists of a tube of toothpaste, a shaver, deodorant and soap, costs the government R$13.17.

They are distributed every four months and, according to the prisoners, there is not enough to meet their needs. Neither do they have permission to receive hygiene products from their families.

The conditions found at Pedrinhas do not come close to complying with items 1 and 18 of the “Mandela Rules”. Respectively, they specify that “all prisoners shall be treated with the respect due to their inherent dignity and value as human beings” and that “prisoners shall be required to keep their persons clean, and to this end they shall be provided with water and with such toilet articles as are necessary for health and cleanliness”; “In order that prisoners may maintain a good appearance compatible with their self-respect, facilities shall be provided for the proper care of the hair and beard, and men shall be able to shave regularly”.

“The food has already turned sour by the time we get it.

I can’t bear the smell

of this food, let alone eat it”

Inmate from the Pre-Trial Detention Center

Brazil’s own National Prison Law states, in article 12, that “material assistance to prisoners shall consist of the provision of food, clothing and sanitary facilities”.

“Of all the prisoners that have come here, there’s not one that hasn’t got sick. There’s no way we can stay here”. This statement from one of the 19 detainees sharing a tiny space in one of the cells of the House of Detention supports the conclusions of the CNJ (National Justice Council). After conducting a prison task force, in which it visited all the units of the Pedrinhas complex in April 2011, the CNJ included among its 41 recommendations the closure of the House of Detention, the Provisional Detention Center and the Prisoner Custody Center.

The lengthy report by the CNJ emphasizes, in text and photos, the appalling conditions of the buildings that form the Pedrinhas prison complex. According to the council, the dirty conditions make the prison unfit for detainees to serve their sentences.

Two years earlier, the final report of the Lower House Congressional Inquiry into the Prison System had already identified the run-down state and structural inadequacy of the buildings at Pedrinhas. “The walls are dirty, the hallways are dark and there is trash everywhere,” said the inquiry in its report. “Sick prisoners who have HIV and tuberculosis in shared cells reveal the lack of medical assistance,” it concluded. Many of the inmates have health problems. The most common cases are tuberculosis, fevers, throat infections, headaches and respiratory problems. Generally, the sick prisoners, even those with infectious diseases, share cells with healthy inmates.

Cases were also found of detainees with liver stones and metal implants in their bodies that needed changing. According to the accounts of prisoners, requests for medical treatment are frequently met with blasts of pepper spray. “When we ask for medicine, we get a ‘dousing’ in the face,” revealed one prisoner from the Triage unit.

The National Prison Law establishes that the health care of the prisoners must include medical, pharmaceutical and dental treatment. It also states that if the facility does not have the structure necessary, the treatment must be provided at another location.