Brazil: Lula’s Minister defends decriminalizing drugs to reduce the number of prisoners

The Minister of Human Rights and Citizenship, Silvio Almeida, said that drug decriminalization could help reduce the number of prisoners in the country.

“We have to treat this as a health issue, as an issue that cannot be solved through incarceration, with imprisonment, and with punishment,” he declared in an extensive interview with BBC News Brazil, published on Tuesday, April 7.

According to him, President Lula has already asked explicitly for action on the prison system.

According to Almeida, “the dynamics of the Brazilian state have developed from a false idea that punishment would somehow be the fundamental element of the fight against crime.”

“President Lula spoke specifically to me about this and asked me that we could think within the scope of ways to make it possible for imprisoned people who should no longer be to leave the prison system,” he declared.

Asked if he is in favor of decriminalizing drugs, the minister nodded. “I am in favor of it. The war on drugs is a deadly detriment,” he stated.

“I think that the war on drugs, how drugs are fought, causes irreparable damage to Brazilian society.”

He added that prison or punishment could not solve the drug issue.

“Based on experience, on the experience of other countries, we have to treat this as a public health issue, as an issue that is not solved through incarceration, with prison, and with punishment.”

The minister also commented on a lawsuit pending in the Supreme Court (STF) since 2015 for decriminalizing drugs.

“I, particularly, am in favor of this action being judged and that this issue is resolved in Brazil,” he told the BBC.

However, Almeida said there would be no negotiations with the STF to schedule the trial.

“There is no question regarding this, even because this is part of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security.”

In a society where the numbers of violence terrify the population, the minister said that discussing the issue of non-incarceration will not be easy.

According to him, it is the Brazilian State’s task to prepare society for discussing it “since we are discussing science. It’s not a matter of wishful thinking. It’s not an opinion.”

However, he did not cite any study that proves his opinion.

Data from the National Survey on Penitentiary Information (Infopen), done by the Ministry of Justice, relative to June 2022, show that the number of prisoners in Brazil is 837,000.

Meanwhile, more than 90% of the country’s homicides and the overwhelming majority of thefts and robberies are unsolved and go unpunished, according to various sources, including the NGO Sou da Paz.

With information from Revista Oeste