103 At the end of October 1998, a total of 32,478 inmates were held in facilities operated by São Paulo's Secretariat of Public Security. Fax from Luiz Antônio Alves de Souza, Adjunct Secretary of Public Security, to Human Rights Watch, October 30, 1998. A few thousand inmates had, however, recently been transferred to newly-inaugurated facilities within the prison system, and some 11,000 more transfers were supposed to take place during the next few months. Nonetheless, as these numbers indicate, from fifteen to twenty thousand inmates will remain in police hands.
104 Minas Gerais 1997 CPI report, p. 36.
105 See ICCPR, art. 10(2)(a); American Convention, art. 5(4).
106 Human Rights Watch interview, Darcy Sassi, São Paulo, November 19, 1997.
107 Human Rights Watch interview, Luiz Antônio Alves de Souza, adjunct secretary, Secretaria de Estado dos Negócios da Segurança Pública, São Paulo, January 8, 1998; Minas Gerais 1997 CPI report, p. 36; Human Rights Watch interview, Judge Georges Lopes Leite, Brasília, December 18, 1997. Human Rights Watch does not have comprehensive figures with regard to this issue for the state of Rio de Janeiro, which has the country's second-largest inmate population, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the proportions are equally unacceptable. See, for example, Célia Costa, "Uma fuga que já era esperada," O Globo, May 19, 1998 (noting that of 356 inmates confined in one police precinct, ninety, or 25 percent of the total, were convicted).
108 Americas Watch (now the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch), Police Abuse in Brazil: Summary Executions and Torture in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (New York: Human Rights Watch, November 1987), p. 9.
109 See Human Rights Watch/Americas, Police Brutality in Urban Brazil, pp. 28-31; Human Rights Watch/Americas, "Fighting Violence with Violence: Criminality and Human Rights Violations in Rio de Janeiro," A Human Rights Watch Short Report, vol. 8, no. 2(B) January 1996; Americas Watch, "The Killings in Candelária and Vigário Geral: The Urgent Need to Police the Brazilian Police," A Human Rights Watch Short Report, vol. 5, no. 11, November 1993; Human Rights Watch/Americas, Final Justice: Police and Death Squad Homicides of Adolescents in Brazil (New York: Human Rights Watch, February 1994); Americas Watch and the Center for the Study of Violence, "Urban Police Violence in Brazil: Torture and Police Killings in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro after Five Years," A Human Rights Watch Short Report, vol. 5, no. 5, May 1993.
110 Human Rights Watch interview, Penitenciária Desembargador Raimundo Vidal Pessoa, Manaus, Amazonas, December 16, 1997.
111 Human Rights Watch interviews, Depatri, São Paulo, November 24, 1997.
112 Human Rights and Citizenship Division, Office of the Mayor of Belo Horizonte, Dossiê Violência Policial, Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte, March 1996), p. 3 (translation by Human Rights Watch).
113 Human Rights Watch interview, members of the Human Rights and Citizenship Division, Office of the Mayor of Belo Horizonte, March 28, 1996.
114 Until April 1997, when torture was codified as a distinct crime in the Brazilian penal code, torture cases were typically prosecuted under the legal prohibitions on battery or abuse of authority. In cases involving minors, however, prosecutors were able to rely upon an article in the Children's and Adolescents' Statute that criminalizes torture when committed against persons under the age eighteen. See Law No. 8.069/90, art. 233. The human rights division of the public prosecutor's office used this provision to convict six civil police officers involved in the torture of a minor on April 13, 1993. See Sentence, Criminal Appeal No. 54.187/0, State Appellate Court, Belo Horizonte, August 30, 1996.
115 Human Rights Division, Public Prosecutor's Office, "Indictments Against Military and Civil Police in the Ordinary Courts 1994, 1995, and 1996," Belo Horizonte, February 3, 1997. Because some police officers are the subject of more than one indictment, the number of police officers against whom indictments have been filed is somewhat less than these figures suggest. Although crimes committed by military police are ordinarily prosecuted in military courts, prosecutions for the crime of abuse of authority, which does not exist in the Military Criminal Code, may be filed against military police officers in the ordinary courts.
116 1997 Minas Gerais CPI report, p. 92 (translation by Human Rights Watch). Human Rights Watch viewed the CPI's video and also spoke with prisoners who described the igrejinha at the DEOESP in similar terms.
117 Human Rights Watch interview, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, March 12, 1998.
118 Human Rights Watch interview, Penitenciária Nelson Hungria, Nova Contagem, Minas Gerais, March 18, 1998.
119 During his March 1998 visit to the Thefts and Robberies Precinct, Human Rights Watch's Brazil office director James Cavallaro entered a room that matched the description given by numerous prisoners, thus corroborating their physical description of it. Shortly after Cavallaro entered, a visibly upset jailer insisted that he leave, closing the door behind him.
120 Human Rights Watch interview, Penitenciária Nelson Hungria, Nova Contagem, Minas Gerais, March 18, 1998.
121 Ouvidoria de Polícia, Relatório Anual de Prestação de Contas da Ouvidoria da Polícia, 1996, p. 98.
122 Minas Gerais 1997 CPI report, p. 45. In April 1997, the prisons' capacity (not counting damaged cells) was 3,008 places, but only 2,308 inmates were being held. Ibid., p. 47.
123 Human Rights Watch interview, Luiz Antônio Alves, January 8, 1998.
124 Ibid.
125 Human Rights Watch interview, Flávio Hebron, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, December 13, 1997.
126 "Rebeliões bateram recorde em SP no ano passado," Folha de S. Paulo, March 17, 1998 (citing statistics provided by the public security secretariat).
127 Adriana Bruno, "`Presos vivem como bichos', diz director," Folha de S. Paulo, February 22, 1997.
128 "Presos do 64º DP fazem motim," Folha de S. Paulo, July 12, 1997. As of November 20, 1997, the lockup held seventy-four inmates. São Paulo Lockup and Jail Statistics, p. 2.
129 Human Rights Watch interview, Ivanete Oliveira Velloso, precinct chief, São Paulo, November 24, 1997.
130 Human Rights Watch interview, Luiz Antônio Alves, January 8, 1998.
131 Human Rights Watch interview, Judge Marco Antônio Scapini, December 1, 1997.
132 Conselho Nacional de Política Criminal e Penitenciária, "Relatório Circunstanciado da visita da Inspeção feita em Estabelecimentos Penais nos Estados do Amazonas, Amapá e Roraima," July 7, 1998.