Most people have no idea what it feels like to be in prison, and it is certainly a place no individual would like to be in. Brazil has the world’s fourth largest prison population and every single day more and more violence is occurring within the prison walls. To make matters worse, the violence inside the incarceration facilities has lead to an increase in violence outside of the prisons. Overcrowding, limited resources, gangs, etc. are contributing factors to what has lead to this prison anarchy. People around the world barely have begun to hear about the violence in Brazilian prisons, yet it has been going on for years. Brazil, the country that is holding the upcoming FIFA 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics is in a state of a violent and gruesome prison crisis. This paper will present provide historical context to the issue, the reasons as to why Brazil’s prison system is violent/overcrowded, and discuss what the government is going to help the issue.
To understand what is occurring in Brazil currently, one must dig into history. Around 1693 slave hunters from Sao Paulo, Brazil found “lead colored flakes of heavy metal near the headwaters of Sao Francisco River” . When they melted the metal down the men noticed it was gold and within a few years there was a gold rush in Brazil in the state of Minas Gerais. The gold rush and coffee plantations later fueled the slave trade, revenue and created big cities we know today in Brazil . Since then, Brazilians have been undergoing urbanization and leaving the countryside towards the Northeast in search of a better life. Mostly during the 1940’s urbanization began to occur, with people pouring into the city in search of jobs and creating “favelas” on the edge of the city (wh...
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Introduction The exponential growth of gangs in the Northern Triangle countries (Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras) has led to an epidemic of violence across the region. The two largest and most formidable gangs in the Northern Triangle, the Mara Salvatrucha-13 (MS-13) and the Barrio 18, wage battles against one another to control territory and defend against incursions. In 2011, Honduras led the world in homicides, with 91.6 per 100,000 people; rates were also alarmingly high in El Salvador and Guatemala, at 69.1 and 38.5 per 100,000 people, respectively. In El Salvador, a country with a population of only 6.2 million people, 4,354 were the victims of homicide in 2011 alone, with the Catholic Church estimating that more than 1,300 of these deaths were the direct result of gang violence. To counteract the growth of the gang phenomenon, during the 2000s the Northern Triangle countries favored a mano dura (iron fist) approach to dealing with the increasing belligerence of gangs.
Imagine photographers and journalists littering the panicking and anxious street, a public area where everyone can witness the live crime of kidnapping and burglary. In the 2004 film “Bus 174” examines the life of Sandro Rosa Do Nascimento, a young man who held Rio De Janeiro’s bus 174 hostage in 2000. The documentary depicted the reality and perspective of Sandro and the Brazilian society, which illustrated the flaws and thoughts of Sandro and the society of Rio De Janeiro. Based off the depiction of both realities, the Brazilian society is the most at fault for the tragic event because Sandro never encountered a support system and he had experienced traumatic events caused by the Brazilian society.
In the favela of São Paulo, Brazil, 1958, Carolina Maria de Jesus rewrote the words of a famous poet, “In this era it is necessary to say: ‘Cry, child. Life is bitter,’” (de Jesus 27). Her sentiments reflected the cruel truth of the favelas, the location where the city’s impoverished inhabited small shacks. Because of housing developments, poor families were pushed to the outskirts of the city into shanty towns. Within the favelas, the infant mortality rate was high, there was no indoor plumbing or electricity, drug lords were governing forces, drug addiction was rampant, and people were starving to death. Child of the Dark, a diary written by Carolina Maria de Jesus from 1955 to 1960, provides a unique view from inside Brazil’s favelas, discussing the perceptions of good
“Overcrowding leading to waves of unrest, riots, and a major prison-building program has marked Brazilian prisons. Many cells rely on primitive sanitation, as Spartan as a pan on the floor in place of a toilet” (Roth, 2006). Many institutions serve only one meal a day, and cells usually have no beds. Beyond these technical issues, Brazil frequently disregards the incidence of rape and murder in state prisons (Roth, 2006). First-time offenders are often placed with more serious criminals, which lead to rape and discrimination against younger offenders. 651 inmates were killed during the first half of 2007; during riots, inmates burn themselves to death, kill and injure each other (Human Rights Watch, 2008) Lottery murdering is a widely-accepted form of relieving overcrowding in Brazilian prisons (Roth, 2008). The current 420,000 inmates exceed the system’s capacity by almost 200,000 prisoners (Human Rights Watch,
Throughout history, it has become very clear that the tough on crime model just does not work. As stated by Drago & Galbiati et al. In their article: Prison Conditions and Recidivism, although it is...
Filh, Alfredo Saad. "Neoliberalism, Democracy, and Development Policy in Brazil." DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIETY June 2010: 1-28.
Brazil is both the largest and most populous country in South America. It is the 5th largest country worldwide in terms of both area (more than 8.5 Mio. km2 ) and habitants (appr. 190 million). The largest city is Sao Paulo which is simultaneously the country's capital; official language is Portuguese. According to the WorldBank classification for countries, Brazil - with a GDP of 1,5 bn. US $ in 2005 and a per capita GPD of appr. 8.500 US - can be considered as an upper middle income country and therefore classified as an industrializing country, aligned with the classification as one of the big emerging markets (BEM) next to Argentina and Mexico. Per capita income is constantly increasing as well as literacy rate (current illiteracy rate 8%). Due to its high population rate (large labour pool), its vast natural resources and its geographical position in the centre of South America, it bears enormous growth potential in the near future. Aligned with an increasing currency stability, international companies have heavily invested in Brazil during the past decade. According to CIA World Factbook, Brazil has the 11th largest PPP in 2004 worldwide and today has a well established middle income economy with wide variations in levels of development. Thus, today Brazil is South America's leading economic power and a regional leader.
Throughout this novel violence through force is a persistent theme. This violence connects to many current date violence in Latin American countries. This hasn’t just been a trend in Dominican Republic with dictators. This has been a common theme around many countries in Latin America. This novel has several themes that can connect to today’s politics and societies in Latin
Although prison systems are intense and the experience is one of a kind for sure, it does little to help them as statistics show “two-in-five inmates nationwide return to jail within three years of release”(Ascharya, K). The population of people entering the prison systems nationwide is increasing exponentially. Often times, it is due to the living conditions in which they return to, such as facing the same poverty, limited prospects and minimal network connections, that make them turn to crime to survive. For obvious reasons, income is the solution to many of their problems, which can only be obtained with their “by any means necessary” mindset. Prison has almost become a second home for recurring inmates and in some cases has reached a point where it is no longer intimidating....
In Western cultures imprisonment is the universal method of punishing criminals (Chapman 571). According to criminologists locking up criminals may not even be an effective form of punishment. First, the prison sentences do not serve as an example to deter future criminals, which is indicated, in the increased rates of criminal behavior over the years. Secondly, prisons may protect the average citizen from crimes but the violence is then diverted to prison workers and other inmates. Finally, inmates are locked together which impedes their rehabilitation and exposes them too more criminal
Brazil is located in Eastern South America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean. It is slightly smaller than the U.S., with bordering countries Argentina, Bolivia, Columbia, French Guyana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela. It has many natural resources, including bauxite, gold, iron ore, manganese, nickel, phosphates, platinum, tin, uranium, petroleum, hydropower, and timber. The climate is tropical in the north, but temperate in the south. The terrain consists of mostly flat to rolling lowlands, with some plains, hills, mountains, and a narrow coastal belt. In recent years, environmentalists have become increasingly concerned over the future of the Amazon region, where human life has threatened the world's largest intact rain forest. Brasilia is the capital and main source of modern industry.
In the current economic times the development and growth of any economy has come to a near stop or at least to a drastic slow down. The face of the global economic environment has changed and many new countries are starting to change the way their country and the rest of the world does business. One such nation is Brazil, who has turned around their own economic troubles and is becoming one of the fastest growing economies in the world (World Factbook). Brazil has started developing its economy and using the opportunity to achieve a level of respect in the world.
Prisons for a long time have been a gateway to try to save society, when the only thing that it’s doing is hurting the social order because it’s creating more problems that are not being treated from the beginning. Crime has become a big problem during these hard times with the poor economy, but it has especially affected Latin America because of all the problems that overcrowded prisons have brought forward. In Latin America Brazil and Mexico are the two largest countries that have been affected with having the highest percentage of crimes, inmates in prisons, and concerns with overcrowded prisons. And these increase with the high crime rates in Latin America that are rising due to drug trafficking wars in Brazil and Mexico. "The country with the largest prison is Brazil, with 194,074 prisoners followed by México, with 144, 261 prisoners" (Pinzon 1). These numbers are only rising because of the lack of poorly trained officials and the limits amount of money for programs to help them integrate back into society (Dammert and Zuniga 9). As citizens we have learned to think of prisons as the last resort to put criminals, not being aware of the consequences that it will bring in the long run for society. Prison systems fail in Latin American because they are overcrowded up to three times more of the capacity they’re built for (Pinzon 1). And this problem has caused higher crimes rates as well as the spread of infectious diseases within the prisons particularly in Brazil and Mexico because their countries with higher prevalence of injecting drug users (IDUs) and because they go unseen (Dolan 36).
The purpose of this source is to evaluate and compare prisons with the death penalty. Prisons are meant to protect society, punish convicted criminals, deter criminal activity, and when possible, to rehabilitate criminals. However, there is an increase of incarcerated criminals due to rising populations and longer life expectancies. This may lead to an experience similar to facing capital punishment. Prisons will experience poorer health care and levels of sanitation, bigger risks of violence, and the likely hood of diseases. This type of environment violates constitutional rights, morals and ethics, as well as human rights. This situation could encourage the idea to thin out the population, or to abolish the death penalty because prison is a hellhole.
The origin of the word prison comes from the Latin word to seize. It is fair to say that the traditionally use of prison correspond well with the origin of the word; as traditionally prison was a place for holding people whilst they were awaiting trail. Now, centuries on and prisons today is used as a very popular, and severe form of punishment offered to those that have been convicted. With the exception however, of the death penalty and corporal punishment that still takes place in some countries. Being that Prison is a very popular form of punishment used in today's society to tackle crime and punish offenders, this essay will then be examining whether prison works, by drawing on relevant sociological factors. Furthermore, it will be looking at whether punishment could be re-imagined, and if so, what would it entail?