FEBEM convicted again in death of an adolescent

17/01/2008

On the last January 15^th, the Brazilian Justice has determinate that the now extinct FEBEM (Brazilian youth detention center, known today as CASA) is obligated to compensate the family of the adolescent Bruno Martins Alvarenga Corea, found dead in 2004 November 6^th , at the Vila Maria Complex of the FEBEM, after only eight months of detainee.

The adolescent was found hanging by a bed sheet, a few hours after he had tried suicide for the first time. Because of this first attempt, the institution was recommended to watch closely the intern and to take out of the cell all the objects that could be used in a new try. But the FEBEM didn't follow the recommendations.

The sentence, that obligates FEBEM to compensate the adolescent mother for moral harm, Mrs. Ieda Martins de Alvarenga Correa, did not recognize the material harm. "The Judiciary, unfortunately, accepts the argumentation used by the FEBEM, that after an internship period the adolescent would never find a decent job to help his family. The acceptance of this argumentation is the recognition that this institution doesn't full fill its role, the rehabilitation of adolescents", said Marcela Vieira, Conectas lawyer in this case. The organization is going to appeal of this decision.

The compensation was set in around R$148.000 (around 70 thousand dollars). Although the sum is lower than pleaded, this case represents a new perspective that Brazilian judiciary has adopted into dealing with cases involving a recompense for moral harm for death of detainees. In his decision, the judge Luis Paulo Aliende Rieiro recognized that "he feeling of the lost of a family member is always the same, doesn't change if the person was once involved with crimes (?)".

This new perspective, for the lawyer Eloísa Machado, is also a recognition of Conectas work, which defends that the life of those imprisoned has the same value of those living in freedom; but unfortunately the Brazilian judiciary hadn´t understood it in the same way, giving the same compensation of this case for people who got a check incorrectly bounced.

The responsibility of FEBEM in this case has empathized the lack of structure to deal with adolescents who need special attention, like in Bruno's case. Only in December 2006 a new unit was open to help the institution to deal with these problems.