In the latest in the series of prison violence between rival gangs in Northern Brazil has left at least 57 inmates dead with another 16-prisoner decapitated. The inhuman brutality has been a regular scene in overcrowded and understaffed prisons in the country.
The clash was in Para State in Northern Brazil comes months after the deadly riot at neighboring Amazonas State in May, which resulted in 55 inmate causalities. Statements released by Regional Recovery Center in Altamira, a city in southeast Para said inmates held two prison guards hostage during the alteration which started early Monday morning.
The feud broke out between the Rio based Comando Vermelho and local organized criminal group Comando Classe A as leaders of the former set fire at prison pavilion where the later was located. Justice Minister Sergio Moro has offered to transfer leader of the faction responsible for the outbreak in the jail compound. He said they ought to “remain held forever in federal prisons.”
In a tweet, a federal lawmaker and a former police officer was only worried about the guards and had little empathy for the dead,” The truth is no one is going to miss them.” With authorities clamping down on drug lords, prison conditions are more deplorable and overcrowded with no plans or investment for improvement appear in the pipeline. The federal lawmakers are least concerned to prioritize rehabilitation over punishment in the States prison system labeled ‘policy of mass incarceration’ by Robert Muggah, the research director at Igarape Institute a think tank based out of Rio de Janerio.
Longstanding rivalries between drug kingpins over the autonomy of drug supply routes in the north has seen hundreds die in similar clashes, a rigged prison system and authorities pleased to out prisoners die a clear case of Human Rights Violation. With no hope of improvement, we might hear more of such brutalities coming out South American nation.