Lula government may use prisoner’s death to support extrication

The death of a prisoner on January 8th tends to be used inappropriately by the Lula government to continue its defense of decarceration as a public policy to improve conditions in penitentiaries. The problem of prison overcrowding is real and needs to be faced, but the solution of releasing criminals is not the only or the best solution. But it can move forward, mainly because the Federal Supreme Court (STF) also adopted it, in a recent decision in a PSOL action. To top it off, the topic was the topic of meetings between the “drug lady” and authorities from the Ministry of Justice.

Human Rights Minister Silvio Almeida himself, when speaking about the death of Cleriston Pereira da Cunha, related the fact to the department’s projects that seek improvements for the prison population. “Mr. Cleriston’s death is the result of several problems that the Federal Supreme Court itself has already recognized as an unconstitutional state of affairs”, stated Silvio Almeida. The statement was made during an interview with Rádio Itatiaia, last Tuesday (28).

What the minister did not mention is the exceptionality of Cleriston’s case, with abuses that go beyond the problems of other inmates: he had been in preventive prison for more than 10 months, by order of the STF even though he did not have a privileged jurisdiction, no criminal record, presenting several comorbidities and no evidence of vandalism or participation in a criminal organization.

By deciding in favor of PSOL’s petition, the STF, which kept Cleriston in prison, understood that the prison system has an “unconstitutional state of affairs”. The term means that there is a violation of several prisoners’ rights, such as the right to personal dignity, health and justice, attesting to a notorious situation in the country. After that, however, the Court made a series of questionable demands on the federative entities. Experts see these STF impositions, among other problems, as a violation of the principle of reserving what is possible, when the Judiciary demands the execution of measures that are unfeasible for the public authorities – as if complex problems could be resolved by a bureaucratic decision.

STF, “drug lady” and Lula government defend decarceration

“The left’s strategy in general is the following: they do not allow the construction of new prisons, and they complain about the problem of prison overcrowding, which is a real problem. But they don’t want the construction of new spaces as a solution to this problem. They want the criminals released”, explains Marcelo Monteiro, public prosecutor at the Public Ministry of Rio de Janeiro.

The measures demanded by the PSOL and accepted by the Supreme Court include, among other actions, that the National Council of Justice (CNJ) carry out a new joint effort to release criminals and that judges explicitly justify the reason for not offering criminals alternative sentences. In 2023 alone, the CNJ has already released 21 thousand prisoners. Furthermore, they require the federal government and state governments to present a work plan to ensure improvements in the prison system.

In fact, it was the preparation of the national plan that led the “drug lady” to meetings with authorities from the Lula government’s Ministry of Justice. Luciane Barbosa Farias, wife of the leader of the Comando Vermelho faction in Amazonas, stated that she wanted to contribute to the national plan being drawn up by Flávio Dino’s team. Luciane’s travel and daily costs were paid by the Ministry of Human Rights, a department headed by Silvio Almeida.

Left defends line of “penal abolitionism”

“Brazil doesn’t arrest too much, Brazil arrests too little”, says Monteiro. According to him, the number of effective arrests is still small when compared to the number of crimes committed in the country. “Brazil does not arrest even 10% of murderers and 5% of robbers. We are one of the countries with the highest crime rates,” he says.

Since the first months of the Lula government, ministers, secretaries and President Lula himself have been in favor of releasing criminals as a solution to the problems in prisons. “If we think about the demands of society, solving the problems of the prison system is not a priority issue. But the solution is not to release everyone”, says criminal lawyer, João Rezende.

He explains that “criminal abolitionism” is defended by the left within academic discussions of law. For defenders of this line, “if prison is an instrument of control and manipulation, the solution is to end the penal system”, he explains.

For Rezende, the political game influences the creation of the legal system and even the decisions of magistrates. A People’s Gazette has already shown several court decisions to release drug traffickers from criminal factions. At the same time, participants in the January 8th events, such as Cleriston, have been preventively detained for months, despite demonstrations by the PGR in favor of their freedom.

“The criminal system selects conduct that is considered criminal by those in power. Any crime that is typified in the legal system is political because there was a political decision behind it to define that the conduct is criminal, deserves repression and a certain penalty. Whoever is in power is the one who defines it”, explains Rezende.

“The result of this is that people who participated in the acts of January 8th, without individual proof that they committed a crime, receive greater sentences than a criminal for raping a child would receive”, illustrates Rezende.

For specialist, penalizing less serious crimes prevents recurrence

Bill 4540/2021 follows the line of penal abolitionism. The text, which is being processed in the Chamber of Deputies, was authored by deputy Talíria Petrone (PSOL-RJ) and argues that petty thefts should not be considered a crime, even if a repeat offender

Marcelo Monteiro recalled that in California, in the United States, a similar law was approved. The number of thefts in the state increased considerably after the legislation was changed. “There are scenes of guys who enter stores with a calculating machine and add up the value of the products they are stealing to ensure it is below the limit that could be prosecuted,” he says.

“The criminal never starts out as the head of a drug faction, as a member of a large bank robbery gang. It starts with the petty crime. When the first crime is not repressed, it escalates into a bigger crime”, explains Monteiro.