Invisible women : how women in Brazil are denied human rights in prison institutions

Temps de lecture : 6 minutes

Invisible women : how women in Brazil are denied human rights in prison institutions

13.07.2020
By Maìra Roubach
Between 2006 and 2016 the number of incarcerated women in Brazil increased by 656%. Alongside this absurd demographic rise, there are several reports of human rights violations. Not only does the majority of those women still are awaiting trial, without any access to justice, but they are also being kept in inhumane conditions.
Human rights violations in Brazilian’s feminine penitentiaries
On October 2019, the journal the Intercept Brazil denounced cases of torture in feminine penitentiaries in the state of Para, in the North of Brazil^[1]Potter, H., ‘Moro diz que não há tortura em presídios no Para. Presas obrigadas a sentar em formigueiro discordam’, 8 October 2019, The Intercept Brasil, available at … Continue reading. At least 700 detainees described a real horror story : they were kept isolated without access to any communication, not even their public defenders, for days, beaten and forced to sit wearing only panties on the top of an anthill, among other atrocities.
In response to that, Sergio Moro, former Minister of Justice, visited some penitentiaries and concluded there were not any on-going case of torture^[2]Potter, H., ‘Moro diz que não há tortura em presídios no Para. Presas obrigadas a sentar em formigueiro discordam’, 8 October 2019, The Intercept Brasil, available at … Continue reading. According to him, it was just a misunderstanding and agents of security from the task force for penitentiary intervention were only doing their jobs in order to maintain discipline in its prisons. This task force was originally established by the former administration, in 2017^[3]Calvi, P. Câmara dos Deputados, 2019. Available at: https://www2.camara.leg.br/atividade-legislativa/comissoes/comissoes-permanentes/cdhm/noticias/tortura-nunca-mais, to provide support for states facing crisis in their prison system. Later on, its implementation has been intensified with Bolsonaro’s presidency. The state of Para had actually requested its creation on its territory in July 2019^[4]Ritcher, A. ‘Moro autoriza envio de força-tarefa penitenciaria ao Para’, 30 July 2019. Available at: … Continue reading, following a drug faction dispute which resulted in the death of sixty-two prisoners, that is to say the greatest number of detainees’ deaths since the Carandiru massacre back in 1992^[5]Carandiru was one of the largest prisons in Latin America, in the Brazilian State of Sao Paulo. The place was shut down in 1992, after a massacre which left more than 100 prisoners dead..
The denunciation of human rights violations reverberated through the country and the Human Rights and Minorities Commission of the Chamber of Deputies started to address the issue by ordering a series of public hearings^[6]Haje, L., Câmara dos Deputados, 2019. Available at: https://www.camara.leg.br/noticias/626777-violacoes-de-direitos-humanos-em-presidios-femininos-sao-denunciadas-na-camara/ . In this particular investigation, female prisoners affirmed it was possible to notice a difference in the way they were treated from the very first day of operation : agents would wake them up screaming at 4 am for no reason, medicines and basic products of hygiene were a luxury and there were a lack of basic medical care^[7]Potter, H., ‘Moro diz que não há tortura em presídios no Para. Presas obrigadas a sentar em formigueiro discordam’, 8 October 2019, The Intercept Brasil, available at … Continue reading. Unfortunately, these worrying reports are not an isolated case in the state of Para ; as denounced in a previous public hearing back in 2017, approximately 95% of incarcerated women in Brazil have already suffered from different forms of violence within prisons^[8] Haje, L., Câmara dos Deputados, 2019. Available at: https://www.camara.leg.br/noticias/626777-violacoes-de-direitos-humanos-em-presidios-femininos-sao-denunciadas-na-camara/.
On the other hand, the former Minister of Justice defended how statistics prove that tackling criminal organizations within prison units tends to be reflected in a reduction of crimes – and agents of the task force are doing so. Even though the task force exists since 2017, there is no specific guideline establishing its operation. Bolsonaro administration did not see this as a problem by the time the government decided to implement a new decree granting even more power to members of the police force working on the task force.
It became clear the current administration is setting up a government of penal populism, which encourage the use of violence as well as punishing and imprisoning more in order to control citizens. The problem is not the task force itself, but the way it works. There is no doubt these operations are extremely problematic to all inmates, but there is no denying they are even more troublesome for incarcerated women, considering that most of them are trauma victims, and now have to deal with new forms of violence, being retraumatized.
The Increase of incarcerated women
Brazil is in fourth place worldwide, after the United States, China and Russia, in relation to the absolute size of its female prison population^[9]Cunha, F., ‘Além das grades: Uma leitura do sistema prisional feminino no Brasil’, Huffpost, 15 July 2017. Available at: … Continue reading. Much is said about the on-going penitentiary crisis in the country, but the system, alas, tends to pay more attention to incarcerated men than women. A study published in 2018, the INFOPEN Mulheres, brought to light the fact that the same problems which occur in men’s prison also affect women in their institutions, however women would face specific problems considering that prison institutions are normally “gender neutral”^[10]Blakinger, K., ‘Can we build a better women’s prison?’, The Washington Post, 28 October 2019. Available at: … Continue reading.
As mentioned before, over a 16-year period, between 2000 and 2016, the women’s prisoners rate increased by 656%, meaning 42 355 incarcerated women by June 2016^[11]NFOPEN Mulheres – 2° Ediçao/organização, Thandara Santos, 2017, Ministério da Justiça e Segurança Publica, Brasil. Available at: … Continue reading. During the same period, men’s arrest rate increased by 293%. Even so, most of prison establishments were designed for men, meaning there is no special cells for women and their specific needs. These specific needs would imply (among other measures) special cells for pregnant women, facilities that enable breastfeeding in the prison environment, multidisciplinary teams for women’s health care, basic hygiene items, such as sanitary pads or tampons^[12]Moorhead, J., ‘Why prison isn’t working for women’, The Guardian, 22 April 2014. Available at: … Continue reading. Unfortunately, those items are normally not provided and if female inmates need some, they rely on their family or some campaign donation. Stories of women using breadcrumbs or pet bottles as menstrual pads are not something new there.
This absurd increase lies partly on a law implement in 2006. This new legislation put the national public policy system on drugs in place and based on it, judges have the power to evaluate if a person caught up by the police is a trafficker or just a drug user. In that way, a loophole was created, allowing Brazilian judges to be conservative, and even racist sometimes, as they tend to condemn women not only for their crimes, but for what they consider being a “bad mother” and not behaving as a woman should^[13]Ruas, C. and Lisboa, S., ‘O alto preço do encarceramento feminino’, The Intercept Brasil, 8 March 2018. Available at: https://theintercept.com/2018/03/08/encarceramento-feminino-mulheres/.
The INFOPEN Mulheres study previous mentioned illustrated that the average woman arrested in Brazil has the face of a young women (50% between 18 and 29 years old), black (62%), with incomplete primary education (66%), with a child or more and was probably arrested for trafficking. Basically, some judges, backed by this law, and now the current administration, are punishing more young women from slum areas.
The scenario in institutions for women gets worse when we realize a great number of women there (45%) have not been judged yet ^[14]Ruas, C. and Lisboa, S., Op. Cit.. According to a change in legislation in 2016, incarcerated women who are awaiting trial and are mothers of children under 12 years old can be kept under house-arrest. However, this is not always the case.
Former Minister Moro mentioned tackling criminal organizations within prison units tends to reflect in a reduction of crimes. Nevertheless, most of those women do not play an important role in drug trafficking, meaning they are not a significant member of a drug faction or any other criminal organization. Some are in prison because of the illegal activities of their husbands or boyfriends or because they actually entered the drug trade in search of a mean of support for their children ^[15]Cunha, F., ‘Além das grades: Uma leitura do sistema prisional feminino no Brasil’, Huffpost, 15 July 2017. Available at: … Continue reading
Conservative judges mentioned above would consider this an illustration of being a “bad mother” and would not provide the legal benefit of being in house arrest. This is an example of how a government of penal populism works. It is not a coincidence, it is a political project; as Brazil is a country of social inequalities, must of female inmates are from poor areas and they do not receive the same treatment as an upper-class woman would receive if she is accused of a crime ^[16]Ruas, C. and Lisboa, S., Op. Cit..
Conclusion
The penitentiary system and public policies behind it are a flawed system. The task force is probably not the solution for years of human rights violations. Brazilian public security system is a reflection of slavery time and the military dictatorship, in which violence were promoted and encouraged – the country has a police force that dies a lot, but also kills a lot.
It is not a surprise that the suicide rate among incarcerated women is twenty times higher than the national average . Many factors influence psychological suffering behind bars. Among them is the lack of information about the prison situation and the length of the sentence, the physical and emotional violence they are subjected to and the abandonment of family and friends. Policy makers need to come up with a gender responsiveness for all those issues in order to make real changes for inmates, with an eye to women’s specific needs, but also in its politics, society and people’s mindset.
Maìra Roubach, ” Invisible women : how women in Brazil are denied human rights in prison institutions”, Gender in Geopolitics Institute, 13.07.2020.