Mass incarceration is not Justice. Learn more about the campaign
Campaign by the Criminal Justice Network calls for measures to change the reality of the Brazilian prison system
Brazil has more than 622,000 prisoners but only 371,000 places in the prison system. According to data from the Ministry of Justice, most of these people are young (less than 30), black and poorly educated offenders who commit non-violent crimes such as drug trafficking or theft.
Nearly 40% of prisoners have never been convicted of a crime. It is to draw attention to this reality and mobilize society around measures to change the situation that the Criminal Justice Network is running the campaign “Mass incarceration is not Justice”.
To remedy Brazil’s current criminal policy, for which imprisonment is the justice system’s primary response to anyone who commits – or is suspected of committing – a crime, the Criminal Justice Network proposes four measures:
- Mass incarceration is not only inhumane, it is also illegal. To support the campaign, visit the website www.prisaonaoejustica.org and sign the petition.
About the campaign
After putting on virtual reality goggles, nearly 300 people who were at the Conjunto Nacional commercial center in São Paulo between April 6-10 found themselves in an overcrowded prison cell with 25 detainees. Immersed in the reality and squeezed into an area of 3 square meters, they hear accounts of mistreatment, of people who have served their sentence but are still in prison and others who have been detained for months without a trial and without any information about their cases. The facts were narrated by Emerson Ferreira, an ex-prisoner who spoke personally with the participants after their virtual reality experience.
The reactions of the people who took part in the experience gave rise to the video “Visceral Reality”. Watch:
The Criminal Justice Network is formed by eight non-governmental organizations engaged in the criticism of imprisonment as the State’s predominant response to crime. These organizations are: Center for Studies on Public Security and Citizenship (CESeC); Conectas Human Rights; Office of Legal Counsel to Grassroots Organizations (GAJOP); Land, Employment and Citizenship Institute (ITTC); Defense of the Right to a Defense Institute (IDDD); Sou da Paz Institute; Defenders of Human Rights Institute (DDH); and Justiça Global.
