Bar Association files suit against Amazonas government for prison massacre
After the prison riot in Manaus on the first weekend of the year, which caused the death of 58 prisoners, the Brazilian Bar Association's office in Amazonas filed a suit against the state government, demanding that the government take immediate measures to abide by the Crime Enforcement and Human Rights laws.
The public interest civil action was accepted by Federal Judge Marília Gurgel Sales, who gave 72 hours for the Amazonas government to provide their justifications.
The Bar Association said it had filed the action motivated "by the absence of concrete actions in taking emergency actions regarding the situation of Amazonas prisons." The association requests a preliminary, provisional, and immediate decision to compel the state to take emergency measures.
According to Marco Aurélio Choy, president of the Bar Association's office in Amazonas, the entity "has been reporting this problem for a long time". Nevertheless, "the state has not taken concrete and effective measures necessary to solve this grave problem of the prison system," added the lawyer.
Human Rights Watch
The Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Human Rights Watch issued a statement on Wednesday (Jan. 4) saying that Brazil needs to regain control of its prison system. "During the past several decades, Brazilian authorities have increasingly abdicated their responsibility to maintain order and security in prisons," said Maria Laura Canineu, Human Rights Watch director at the office in São Paulo.
For Human Rights Watch, this situation exposes prisoners to violence and gives more power to organized crime. "The government's complete failure violates the rights of prisoners and is a boon to gangs, who use prisons as recruiting grounds," added Canineu.
The NGO points out that in October 2016 riots in the states of Rondônia, Roraima and Acre killed 22 inmates. "Under Brazilian as well as international human rights law, Brazil's government is obligated to protect prisoners from violence and abuse behind bars. Prisoners in Brazil are three times as likely to be homicide victims as members of the general population," noted the organization's statement.
One of the main causes for this violence is, according to Human Rights, the overcrowding of prisons, associated with understaffing. "Brazilian prisons, build to hold about 372,000, held more than 622,000 people in 2014, the last year for which official data exists."
In the NGO's view, the growth of the prison population is also encouraged by Brazil's approach to drugs, only as police and criminal cases.
"The current policy of criminalizing drug use, production, and distribution has fueled the growth of criminal organizations. It has also filled prisons with people detained for possession of small quantities of drugs, who become vulnerable, while incarcerated, to recruitment by gangs."
Translated by Amarílis Anchieta
Fonte: Bar Association files suit against Amazonas government for prison massacre
