One in Every Three Prisoners in Brazil is Still Awaiting Trial, Says Infopen

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The National Penitentiary Information Survey (Infopen) for June 2017 reports that 32.4 percent of prisoners in Brazil were still awaiting trial.

According to the report, the state of Piauí records the highest rate of temporary prisoners (sixty percent), followed by Amazonas (53.9 percent).

The study was released this Friday, July 12th, by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security.

In total, there are 235,241 prisoners without sentencing in Brazil’s prison system. The number of temporary prisoners is almost double the figure registered twelve years ago, in 2005.

According to Infopen, however, the record of temporary prisoners occurred in 2015, with 261,800 prisoners awaiting trial. Also, according to the report, most prisoners were judged and are under a closed (incarceration) system (43,6 percent), a semi-open (work release) system (16,7 percent) or an open (house arrest) system (six percent).

Only 0.3 percent of detainees comply with an in-patient security measure, and 0.06 percent of detainees comply with an out-patient treatment security measure.

Prisoners vs. Occupancy

The report also points out that the prison population grew, on average, 7.1 percent per year.

The number of prisoners rose from 232,000 in 2000 to 726,000 in 2017. Still, according to the study, 303.112 spaces are lacking to attend to all prisoners.

The deficit is higher in the closed system, requiring more than 114,000 spaces, followed by the provisional system, which lacks more than 95,000 spaces.

According to Infopen, the number of spaces available fell from 446,874 in June 2016 to 423,242 in June 2017.

The study states, however, that the difference in the number of spaces is due to an instruction by the National Penitentiary Department, which urged States not to release data on electronic monitoring capacity but only on the number of physical spaces within the prison facility.