Experts point to risks of CNJ resolution

The resolution of the National Council of Justice (CNJ) ordering the deactivation of judicial asylums until May of next year worries psychiatrists and legal professionals. In a public hearing at the Public Safety Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, held this Wednesday (3), specialists listed a series of risks that the measure will bring to society and to people with mental disorders who are in these institutions for having committed crimes. and can be released without the care necessary for social coexistence. The entities present at the event are still trying to get the CNJ to reverse the decision.

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“It is discouraging to practice psychiatry after this resolution”, stated the president of the Brazilian Association of Psychiatry (ABP), Antônio Geraldo da Silva. “We are going to have a serious epidemic of deaths from these killers who will be released. These are people who are unable to live in society, they cannot put them together with people who have never committed crimes, ”he continued.

The doctor highlighted that there was no consultation with the ABP about the measure or the participation of psychiatrists in the CNJ working group responsible for analyzing the topic.

“There is no reason for the resolution. There is no way to understand how it was approved (…). Where do pedophiles, sexual aggressors and those at high risk of committing the same crimes go?”, asks the doctor. He mentioned that there are around 3,134 mentally ill people in judicial asylums in Brazil. The profile of these patients may vary, but he exemplified that, in general, they are murderers, pedophiles and sexual aggressors.

Another concern is the possibility of criminals claiming a mental disorder in order to be considered unaccountable and free from punishment. These patients, according to the determination of the CNJ, will be treated in the Psychosocial Care Network (Raps), but on a voluntary basis, that is, only if they want treatment.

Antônio Henrique Graciano, Public Prosecutor for the Federal District and Territories Public Ministry, representing the National Association of Members of the Public Ministry, also expressed concern with the resolution due to the lack of broad discussion of the topic and empirical bases for the decision.

The prosecutor claims that the exchange of judicial asylums for Raps does not change the scenario of lack of care structure and psychiatric beds. “Closing these units without a diagnosis? Does Brazil have a single structure? Pushing the State to simply change the board of these systems”, said Graciano.

The President of the National Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of the Federal Council of the OAB, Maria Eugenia de Oliveira, said that the OAB did not receive any invitation to participate in the CNJ’s working group. Therefore, the body created a group to discuss the resolution and send a document to the CNJ with concerns.

Faced with the repercussions and the lack of discussion with other sectors of society, federal deputy Kim Kataguiri (UNIÃO/SP) presented a Draft Legislative Decree to halt the effects of the resolution that deactivates custody hospitals.

To Gazeta do Povo, the CNJ informed that the resolution was drawn up by a working group with representatives of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The body showed that the mentally ill is considered unimputable and, therefore, must receive medical treatment like other patients. “They must receive adequate treatment for the case, with strict observation of the execution of the measure by the Judiciary, which must take all the necessary measures recommended by the health teams to guarantee the health and safety of all”.