Brazil Vows to Fix `Filthy' Prisons After Girl Jailed With Men

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Police Chief Andrea Rodrigues knows all about the outcry in Brazil after a teenage girl was jailed for almost a month with 20 male inmates.

It doesn't stop her from chaining prisoners by the leg to pillars when she runs out of room.

``I need to arrest them, but I have no space,'' Rodrigues said in a telephone interview from the jail in Palhoca. ``I just got a call from a car bringing in another guy. I'll have to find another pillar to chain him to.''

Brazil is facing fresh pressure to overhaul its penitentiary system since the 16-year-old girl known as ``L'' was held at a jail in Abaetetuba with 20 men, who forced her to trade sex for food and burned her with cigarettes. The incident set off a new round of scrutiny of prisoner abuse 15 years after a military raid on Sao Paulo's Carandiru prison led to 111 inmate deaths.

The case shows ``the utter state of neglect and lawlessness that dominates Brazil's prison system,'' said Ademir da Silva, head of the Pastoral Prison Commission, an inmate-rights group, in Para state. Correctional facilities in Brazil, which doesn't have a national penitentiary system, are run by the states.

L, whose full name hasn't been disclosed, was arrested Oct. 21 for breaking into a house to steal money and clothes. Judge Clarissa Maria de Andrade ordered her held in an adult men's jail, and at least four police officials knew she was in a cell with men, said da Silva, who helped secure the girl's release.

`Corrupt and Immoral'

``Every single level of authority failed her miserably,'' said Ana Celina Hamoy, director of Belem's Center for the Protection of Children and Teenagers. ``The attitude in the system -- from the cop that arrests to the judge that signs the sentence -- is often corrupt and immoral.''

Para state Governor Ana Julia Carepa fired State Civil Police Chief Raimundo Benassuly and suspended Judge de Andrade. Benassuly and de Andrade declined to be interviewed.

L ``worked as a prostitute and had been in jail twice before,'' da Silva said. ``The authorities think that because she was accused of these crimes, because she was a prostitute, she deserved to get the horrible treatment she got.''

Televised images of the jail where L was held, in northern Brazil near the Atlantic coast, showed a run-down white shack where prisoners slept in hammocks.

L and her family were taken into protective custody after receiving death threats from police and prison officials, he said.

More than 650 minors are being held in adult facilities in Brazil, and women are often held in the same cells with men, according to the Brazilian Lawyers' Association. At least five states are investigating cases similar to L's, and the Senate is holding hearings on the penitentiary system.

Abuse and Violence

Overcrowding and tight budgets create an atmosphere ripe for disease, abuse and violence, said Mary Cohen, head of the association's Human Rights Commission.

The system housed 419,551 inmates, almost twice the official capacity, as of July, according to the Justice Ministry. Brazil spends an average of 1,000 reais ($562) a month on each inmate, according to the ministry.

The UN said in a report last month that torture and abuse are systematic in Brazil's ``decrepit'' facilities. In a July 2005 visit, UN officials found ``extreme heat, light deprivation and permanent lock-ups, along with pervasive violence.''

``The prisons don't help rehabilitate anyone,'' said Ana Alves da Silva, 43, whose 23-year-old son is serving 4 1/2 years in a Sao Paulo state prison for drug trafficking. Conditions in the penal system create monsters instead of reforming, she said.

1992 Prison Riot

Carandiru prison was overcrowded in October 1992 when military police stormed it to quell a riot by 7,000 inmates. The facility was designed to house 3,250. In 2001, inmates at 29 prisons in Sao Paulo state staged simultaneous rebellions.

Brazil's government on Nov. 27 pledged 90 million reais to build new prisons and upgrade facilities in Para. The Justice Ministry said Dec. 11 it would add space for 5,500 female prisoners in five states.

Human-rights groups say is isn't enough.

``It will take a major reform of the entire system to eradicate this kind of practice,'' said Cohen of the Human Rights Commission.

Officials faced with too many inmates and inadequate facilities often have no choice but to crowd prisoners together, even mixing men and women, said Rodrigues, the police chief in Palhoca, about 700 kilometers (400 miles) southwest of Sao Paulo.

Rodrigues said on a recent day she had 22 men crammed into a cell designed to hold four. She ordered four more men to be chained by their legs to pillars outside.

``What can I do?'' she asked. ``I'm not going to take them home with me. This is a problem the state security secretary needs to solve.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Adriana Brasileiro in Rio de Janeiro at abrasileiro@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Brenda Batten at bbatten@bloomberg.net.