False solutions

Senate and Lower House vote today on bills that criminalize youth

The Constitution and Justice Commission of the Senate will vote today, June 17, on a bill (Senate Bill 333/2015) that increases the time spent in detention by adolescents convicted of heinous crimes involving violence or serious threat. The amendment bill submitted by Senator José Pimentel raises the maximum detention time from three to eight years and creates a special regime for these cases – which would require the construction of exclusive prisons or special wings in the youth detention system.

In the Lower House of Congress, meanwhile, members of the special commission set up to analyze Constitutional Amendment Proposal 171/1993 will decide on lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16. If approved, the proposal will proceed to the full session of the house for voting. According to human rights organizations, the two bills are different but they both pursue the same failed strategy of attempting to tackle social problems with criminal law.

“It is a colossal error to think that supposedly intermediary proposals, such as the case of Senate Bill 333, will have less harmful effects on society. In fact, they all converge towards the criminalization of poor, black youth in the country,” said Custódio. “Congress and the federal government need to realize, even though they may lose votes from part of the population, that the criminal response is incapable of resolving Brazil’s social problems,” he added.

Data published yesterday, June 16, by Ipea (Applied Economic Research Institute) reveal that 51% of the adolescents detained in the country were not attending school or working when they committed the crime. The data also showed that 66% of them were from extremely poor families.

Concerning Senator Pimentel’s bill, Custódio explained that there is no evidence to suggest that raising the length of sentences is an effective way to combat violence. “The law on heinous crimes, for example, has not delivered what was promised; it has not cut crime rates. Why should we believe that it will be any different with children and adolescents?”

In addition to Pimentel’s bill and Amendment 171, there are at least another six similar proposals pending in Congress, such as Constitutional Amendment Proposal 33/2012, drafted by Senator Aloysio Nunes, and Senate Bill 160/2014, from Senator Armando Monteiro.