More prisoners, more profit
Organizations condemn Senate proposal authorizing the privatization of prisons in Brazil
Civil society organizations have expressed their condemnation of Senate Bill 513/2011 that establishes rules for contracting public-private partnerships for the construction and administration of prison facilities.
In a public statement, the organizations, among them Conectas, stressed that the privatization of prisons – which is defended in the bill – will drive the process of mass incarceration in Brazil. The proposal is unconstitutional, they say.
“It does not take much to realize that from the moment prisons become a source of profit, the investment in the sector will require an ever larger number of prisons and longer sentences,” reads the statement.
The main criticisms were directed at article 9 of the bill, which states that the prison operator “shall be remunerated based on the availability of places in the facility”. According to the organizations, the text demonstrates that the more prisoners and the fewer rights there are, the higher the profit will be.
They also identified three negative aspects they consider fundamental in the text: the delegation of the punitive power of the State to the private sector; the privatization of legal counsel; and the exploitation of prison labor.
Click here to read the statement of condemnation in full.
