President Temer's Action Could Reduce Deficit in Brazil's Prisons by 0.4%

01/06/2017 - 11h51

On Thursday, January 5, under pressure, Brazilian President Michel Temer commented for the first time on the massacre of 56 inmates in a prison of Manaus, in the state of Amazonas. He also announced measures to fight the chaos in the Brazilian prison system.
 
President Temer intends to build five new federal prisons, with a total capacity of over 1,000 convicts, which would lead to a decline of only 0.4% in the current deficit of prison beds (250,300).

The new units would not be enough to make up for the negative balance of the state of Amazonas, which currently has 5,438 beds less than needed.

At the beginning of the meeting called to deal with the issue, Temer called the massacre a "terrible accident" and was widely criticized.

Later, he used social networks to justify his choice of words. On his personal page, Temer listed synonyms for the word accident, including "tragedy, loss, disaster, misfortune and fatality."

In all, the federal government will invest US$ 134 million to be used in the construction of new prisons and the improvement of the security systems of state prisons - transfer of technology to block cell phone reception and purchase of body scanners.

The resources, however, are already part of the Federal Budget for 2017.

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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