{"id":5421,"date":"2016-02-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.conectas.org.inf.br\/wp\/noticias\/un-calls-for-reduction-of-prisoner-numbers-in-brazil\/"},"modified":"2021-03-22T20:02:50","modified_gmt":"2021-03-22T20:02:50","slug":"un-calls-for-reduction-of-prisoner-numbers-in-brazil","status":"publish","type":"noticia","link":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/noticias\/un-calls-for-reduction-of-prisoner-numbers-in-brazil\/","title":"UN calls for reduction of prisoner numbers in Brazil","content":"<div class=\"tts_content_wrapper_1\" ><p>The United Nations published yesterday, February 24, the report from the visit made in August last year by the special rapporteur on torture, the Argentine Juan M\u00e9ndez. The document, which shall be officially presented to the UN Human Rights Council on March 8, is one of the most critical ever released by the organization on the Brazilian prison system. In addition to confirming the frequent practice of torture and mistreatment, the rapporteur firmly calls for the reduction of the Brazilian prison population.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/conectas.org\/arquivos\/editor\/files\/G160141RelatorioTorturaVisitaBR2015.pdf\"><u>here<\/u><\/a> to read the report in full.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are currently more than 700,000 people in prison in Brazil \u2013 a population higher than some state capitals such as Cuiab\u00e1 or Aracaju. The Brazilian incarceration rate (number of prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants), of 193, has also grown rapidly in recent years while the rates of other countries at the top of the list have fallen or remained stable.<\/p>\n<p>According to Vivian Calderoni, a lawyer for the Justice program at Conectas, the key aspect of the report is its identification of structural issues that have long been denounced by human rights organizations, but that are rarely acknowledged and debated by society.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBased on this report, Brazil should seriously discuss mass incarceration, its origins, complications and consequences,\u201d she said. \u201cThe UN has demonstrated that our punitive zeal has no grounding in international law, calling into question the widely held view, even among executors of the law, that imprisonment should be the rule, not the exception.\u00a0The rapporteur draws on all his academic and international experience to illustrate that the path take by the country is not only negative, but extremely dangerous,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yGrCDFdNiXI\" width=\"680\" height=\"400\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>According to Camila Asano, coordinator of the Foreign Policy and Human Rights program at Conectas, the report has created an opportunity for Brazil to make headway in the struggle against torture. \u201cThe authorities ought to take the publication of the report seriously and view it as a chance to make progress on key human rights issues, by applying in practice the recommendations made by one of the leading authorities on the topic,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Understand the 10 main points of the report:<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Overcrowding<\/strong>: the rapporteur said Brazil should focus on reducing the prison population rather than building new facilities. He also identified the need to reduce the number of pre-trial detainees (41%) and the amount of time they spend waiting for a preliminary hearing, of five months on average. One of the consequences of overcrowding, said M\u00e9ndez, is that the detention conditions in most facilities are cruel, inhuman and degrading. He visited one cell designed for eight people that was being used to hold 58.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Torture and mistreatment<\/strong>:\u00a0the practice of torture is frequent in the country, despite being substantially under-reported, and it occurs mainly at the time of the arrest by the police and inside the prisons.\u00a0The rapporteur expressed his extreme concern over the fact that the mistreatment has been \u201cnaturalized\u201d by inmates. M\u00e9ndez also emphasized the need for states to create <a href=\"https:\/\/conectas.org\/pt\/acoes\/justica\/noticia\/dilma-sanciona-lei-de-combate-a-tortura\"><u>mechanisms to combat and prevent torture, similar to the one that already exists on the federal level<\/u><\/a>. Currently, only two states have such a mechanism in place.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Drug Law<\/strong>: today, more than a third of men and 63% of women in prison are there for drug-related crimes. The majority, said the rapporteur, are users who sell small quantities to support their own addiction. According to M\u00e9ndez, these cases should be dealt with by non-custodial measures.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Institutional racism<\/strong>:\u00a067% of prisoners are black. This population, according to the evaluation of the rapporteur, stands a significantly higher chance of being the victim of mass incarceration, police violence, torture, mistreatment, medical neglect and receiving harsher sentences \u2013 which suggests a \u201chigh degree of institutional racism\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5. Abusive search<\/strong>:\u00a0Mend\u00e9z drew attention to the violence committed against the relatives of prisoners, namely the <a href=\"https:\/\/conectas.org\/pt\/acoes\/justica\/noticia\/40447-fim-da-revista-vexatoria-avanca-na-camara\"><u>abusive search<\/u><\/a> administered when entering prisons on visitation days. He \u201cstrongly urges the abolition of these methods\u201d and recommended the approval of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.camara.gov.br\/proposicoesWeb\/fichadetramitacao?idProposicao=619480\"><u>bill 7764\/14<\/u><\/a> that bans these searches across the country.<\/p>\n<p><strong>6. Pedrinhas<\/strong>:\u00a0the Maranh\u00e3o state prison complex, the <a href=\"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/actions\/justice\/news\/12695-crisis-in-maranhao\"><u>stage of more than 60 killings<\/u><\/a> in 2013, was the only visited facility to be addressed seperately in the report. According to M\u00e9ndez, despite the reduction in the number of killings, the \u201cconditions in Pedrinhas remain explosive\u201d and could lead to a new wave of violence affecting inmates, their relatives and prison personnel.<\/p>\n<p><strong>7. Privatization of prisons<\/strong>:\u00a0one of the facilities visited by the rapporteur was wholly privatized. The rapporteur said he is <a href=\"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/actions\/justice\/news\/40248-ulterior-motives\"><u>skeptical about privately run prisons<\/u><\/a>, since it has proven to be problematic in other countries, and he stated that privatization can aggravate overpopulation in publicly run prisons, as well as blur the lines of accountability in cases of abuse.<\/p>\n<p><strong>8. Detention hearings<\/strong>:\u00a0in an extensive section on these hearings, M\u00e9ndez welcomed the adoption of <a href=\"https:\/\/conectas.org\/pt\/acoes\/justica\/noticia\/41560-%E2%80%9Ca-porta-de-entrada-no-sistema-continua-escancarada%E2%80%9D\"><u>detention hearings<\/u><\/a> as one of the \u201cmost important public policy initiatives to tackle problems of arbitrary arrest and torture\u201d, but he called for their expansion and improvement, mainly by eliminating the constraints that prevent suspects from openly making complaints of mistreatment and torture.<\/p>\n<p><strong>9.\u00a0 Police violence<\/strong>:\u00a0the rapporteur dedicated a significant part of the report to the use of force by the police. He mentioned the more than 2,200 deaths caused by police operations in 2013 \u2013 an average of six people a day \u2013 and stressed the <a href=\"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/actions\/justice\/news\/26589-for-an-end-to-%E2%80%98resistance%E2%80%99-classification-for-police-killings\"><u>need to approve the bill (4.471\/12)<\/u><\/a> that abolishes the classification \u2018resistance followed by death\u2019 in police reports and creates procedures to investigate these killings.\u00a0He also emphasized the importance of forensic services being better trained and institutionally independent, and he called for and end to the indiscriminate use of <em>in flagrante delicto<\/em> arrests.<\/p>\n<p><strong>10. Adolescents:<\/strong>\u00a0M\u00e9ndez was vocal against legislative bills that violate rights established in international treaties and in Brazil\u2019s own Child and Adolescent Statute. In particular, he condemned the bill that <a href=\"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/actions\/justice\/news\/40273-lawmakers-against-youth-ii\"><u>lowers the age of criminal responsibility<\/u><\/a> from 18 to 16 years and another that <a href=\"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/actions\/justice\/news\/40191-legislative-decoy\"><u>lengthens the maximum detention time<\/u><\/a> from three to 10 years, both of which are pending in Congress. The rapporteur also criticized the conditions in the youth detention system, which \u201cseem, in practice, to function in a very similar way to adult prisons\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"tts__custom-position_bottom_fixed\" ><\/div>","excerpt":"<p>The United Nations published yesterday, February 24, the report from the visit made in August last year by the special rapporteur on torture, the Arge&#8230;<\/p>\n","author":2,"featured_media":8989,"parent":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[7],"tags":[446,119,380,108],"tema":[12270],"class_list":["post-5421","noticia","type-noticia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-prisions","tag-torture","tag-un","tag-united-nations","tema-confronting-institutional-violence"],"acf":{"author":false,"subtitle-pt":"Report of the rapporteur on torture is the first in 15 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