Incarceration numbers

Publication presents analysis from experts on Brazilian prison system data

There are 607,000 people behind bars in Brazil, making it the country with the world’s fourth largest prison population. For these hundreds of thousands of people, there are just 449 general practitioners, or one doctor for every 1,300 prisoners across the country.

These are some of the statistics from the Ministry of Justice compiled in the report “The Criminal Justice Numbers in Brazil” produced by the Criminal Justice Network, a group of civil society organizations of which Conectas is part.

The publication contains analysis on various aspects of the wide array of information on criminal justice. Guest experts make contributions such as comparative reviews and articles on the number of deaths in the prison system and on the omission of data on female incarceration.

In addition to the well-known flaws, such as overcrowding, torture and lack of access to justice, adequate food and healthcare, the experts also concluded that there is a severe shortage of production and analysis of data on the prison system.

• Click here to read the publication.