Brazil: drugs, walls and being a woman

ITTC: The aim of our programme ‘Justice Without Walls’ is to produce information and to foster public debate in order to help reduce the rate incarceration in Brazil, and female prisoners in particular. Our missions include monitoring the criminal justice system; mapping legislative provisions on rights in prison, and the production of information and studies relating to the reducing female imprisonment.

Through mainly, research and advocacy, the programme is network-based and integrates several civil society organisations: associations, secular organisations, universities, media bodies and the general public. The aim is to rally actors from the executive, legislative and judicial powers in order to see changes happening within the judicial system. The programme ‘Rights and Gender’, initiated in 2015, covers two projects: ‘Migrant Women’ – one of our first initiatives – and ‘Gender and Drugs’. The latter sums up two of our priority themes: gender issues and drug-related policies, which constitute the main sources of female imprisonment.

The project primarily focuses on the production of communication media – through our internally gathered data, and on the development of advocacy strategies. As an example, we advocate for the revision of policies about drugs and the recognition of gender issues into public policy making.

ITTC.: According to data from the national penitentiary administration (INFOPEN report Women 2018), the female prison population increased by 656% between 2000 and 2016, whereas the male prison population showed an increase of 293% during the same period. Furthermore, 45% of the incarcerated women are on remand, hence, awaiting their trials.

Through its different activities, ITTC has been able to establish a typical profile of female prisoners in Brazil: the female prison population primarily consists of black women (62%) and young women between the ages of 18 and 29 (50%), all having a low level of education. Many of them have children or are pregnant.

Our reflection on the type profile of female prisoners led us to produce a report in 2019 entitled ’ Women Without Prison: [In] visibility of women subjected to criminal justice ‘. During the survey, our team attended court hearings concerning remand imprisonment (audiência de custódia) and noticed that the majority of women were arrested in flagrante delicto for offences relating to property crimes (59.15%) and drug trafficking (35.68%), both considered as minor or non-violent offences.

ITTC. With regard to women’s imprisonment, we have several references and achievements to our credit. In 2016, we participated in the Portuguese translation of the Bangkok Rules ¹. More recently in 2018, we produced an amicus brief during the request of a collective habeas corpus under n° 143,641, granted by the Supreme Court.

This collective habeas corpus provides the replacement of custody with house arrest for pregnant women and mothers of children aged 12 or below, or for disabled persons.

At ITTC we are constantly striving to advocate for lesser imprisonments. In 2015 the introduction of the audiências de custódia was one of our first achievements. It provides for the appearance before a justice within a maximum period of 24 hours for people arrested in flagrante delicto. ITTC was actively involved in the public dialogue to defend this legal tool which, among other purposes, makes it possible to check whether a person has been subjected to torture during arrest. This tool can also help reduce the number of remand.