Page 12 - aruba-today-20170204

A12 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 4 February 2017

Life at Brazilian prison where 'the state has lost control'

RENATA BRITO clashes. "We have lost all of food is often broken. security forces merely en- cued body parts of a slain
SARAH DiLORENZO the buildings in the prison Outnumbered and ill- suring they didn't escape rival and ate the flesh,
Associated Press where there are inmates, equipped, Batista said, the and occasionally breaking according to Batista, the
NATAL, Brazil (AP) — For who remain in command guards can do little more up fights. They were unable union leader.
to enter even to rescue That kind of violence and
those wounded in fighting, the grisly killings seen in Jan-
instead lowering stretchers uary go beyond the typical
from outside. problems in Brazil's prisons
Cell blocks are divided and could signal the begin-
up by gang affiliation as is ning of a nationwide gang
typical in Brazilian prisons, war for control of the sys-
with a handful of prisoners tem, said Benjamin Lessing,
standing guard each night a political scientist at the
to ensure rivals don't attack
inmates sleeping on the University of Chicago who
floors or nearby patios. studies criminal conflict in
Prisoners complained to Latin America.
the AP that they don't have The First Capital Com-
regular access to legal as- mand, the country's largest
sistance or medical care. criminal organization, has
According to relatives, picked fights with several
some inmates with knife gangs as it tries to expand
and even gunshot wounds its reach outside its tradi-
from the most recent fight- tional base in Sao Paulo. At
ing have not been treated. Alcacuz, the First Capital
Basic services may not be Command is fighting the
available at Alcacuz, but Crime Syndicate for con-
nearly everything else is: trol.
A military police officer stands next to inmates during a head count in the Alcacuz prison in Nisia Police have seized cell- Brazil incarcerates more
Floresta, near Natal, Brazil. During the unrest, more than 50 prisoners also fled the facility, which phones, drugs, knives, than 620,000 people in a
neighbors refer to as the “Penitentiary of Maximum Escape.” handguns and several system that has space for a
(AP Photo/Felipe Dana) types of ammunition at the little over 370,000, accord-
facility, which is built on ing to a 2014 Ministry of Jus-
nearly two years, guards and in control." than corral the prisoners sand soft enough to dig by tice report. Forty percent
didn't dare enter the cell Alcacuz is among the worst into areas they themselves hand. of detainees are merely
blocks at the Alcacuz prisons in Brazil, but by no are afraid to enter. At least four tunnels have awaiting trial.
prison in northeastern Bra- means an aberration. The Authorities acknowledge been found, popping up There aren't enough pub-
zil. And with good reason. problems here can be that Alcacuz is beyond sav- just beyond the lightly pa- lic defenders, and cases
Only about a dozen at found across Latin Ameri- ing. Rio Grande do Norte trolled walls. drag on for years. The stiff-
a time are supposed to ca's largest nation, which state Gov. Robinson Faria "Here, we have everything, ening of penalties for drug
watch some 1,500 inmates, is experiencing a wave of has announced it will close, even dogs," one prisoner, offenses and campaigns to
whose gangs are supplied prison massacres and un- though only after three who is serving a sentence crack down on crime have
through tunnels that let rest that have left at least new prisons are ready. In for robbery, boasted via sent even more offenders
them bring in guns, knives, 130 inmates dead since the the meantime, an emer- the WhatsApp messaging into the prison system.
cellphones and just about beginning of the year. gency force of corrections service. Like all of the pris- In response to the crisis,
anything else. Neglect has long been agents has been sent in to oners interviewed, he re- President Michel Temer's
The lockup, nicknamed building at Alcacuz where establish order and repair fused to be named. government has promised
"Swiss cheese" by residents more than 1,550 inmates the damaged facility. During the unrest, more around 30 new prisons. But
of the surrounding neigh- are crammed into buildings Even before the Jan. 14 than 50 prisoners also fled the new facilities would
borhood, saw a Jan. 14 riot meant for about 1,000. riot, inmates spilled out the facility, which neighbors
in which 26 prisoners died Batista said guards — no of cells whose doors had refer to as the "Penitentiary make space for about
— and officials here are still more than 12 are on duty at been destroyed, often of Maximum Escape." 25,000 more inmates, plug-
trying to finally regain full any time — haven't entered scavenged to make home- Life in some Brazilian pris- ging only 10 percent of the
control. some parts of the complex made knives. Guards mere- ons, including Alcacuz, got deficit reported in 2014.
"The state has lost control," since riots in March 2015. ly locked the cell blocks, even worse this year when "More prisons means more
Vilma Batista, a guard at Al- She said they are routinely which they rarely entered fights between gangs led prisoners and stronger
cacuz and president of the paid late and their watch- except for occasional al- to a series of gruesome gangs," said Karina Biondi,
correction officers union in towers are so decrepit that most militaristic raids. murders. author of "Sharing this Walk:
Rio Grande do Norte state, some are unusable. After the riot, guards pulled As guards watched last An Ethnography of Prison
told The Associated Press, There are no x-ray ma- back even farther, allowing month, a member of the Life and the PCC in Brazil."
speaking just outside the chines to scan visitors, and prisoners to roam the entire Crime Syndicate of Rio ''The solution, in my view, is
prison in the wake of the a machine used to check facility unchecked, with Grande do Norte barbe- less prison."q