Prison riot in Brazil leaves 16 inmates decapitated and dozens more killed

[nahtanbob]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/29/americas/brazil-prison-riots-intl/index.html

(CNN)More than 50 inmates were killed during a prison riot in northern Brazil on Monday, according to local authorities.

Jarbas Vasconcelos, superintendent of the penitentiary system in the state of Para, said 16 of the 52 inmates who died in the Altamira prison were decapitated.
The rest are believed to have died from asphyxiation due to the prisoners setting fire to part of the facility, state news agency Agencia Brasil reported.
The riot began when a group of prisoners stormed a prison wing controlled by a rival faction, Agencia Brasil reported, citing a statement from the state of Para's penitentiary system authorities.


Two correctional guards take captive were released.
The incident is the latest in a string of deadly violence that has plagued Brazil's prisons in recent months.
In May, 55 inmates were killed in gang-related riots at four prisons in western Brazil.
The local prison authorities said at the time the deaths were a result of violent clashes among rival factions within the same drug gang, known as the Family of the North.

Human rights groups have accused the government of doing too little to prevent the violence at prisons that have become recruitment centers for gangs -- and even facilitating clashes by allowing the cells to become overcrowded.

The clashes pose a challenge to the new far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, but could also end up giving his approval rating a boost as he is seen as tough on crime and has previously vowed to crack down on criminal gangs and prison violence.

 

[zectech]

Prisons should be rebuilt for solitary confinement of every prisoner. Each small cell having a shower, a toilet and a bed, and a window. This would prevent every form of violence prisoners do in prison. The is the only sane prison reform. There are some made whose only 'joy' in life is making hell for everyone else. Solitary confinement would isolate the hell to these individuals. They would live in their own hell. Everyone else would enjoy reading books or looking out the window.

Prisons today are a reward for thugs living the thug life. They have a better life in prison because they get to be as thuggish as they are allowed, which is substantially more than in the outside community.

 

[khansaheeb]

Prisons should be rebuilt for solitary confinement of every prisoner. Each small cell having a shower, a toilet and a bed, and a window. This would prevent every form of violence prisoners do in prison. The is the only sane prison reform. There are some made whose only 'joy' in life is making hell for everyone else. Solitary confinement would isolate the hell to these individuals. They would live in their own hell. Everyone else would enjoy reading books or looking out the window.

Prisons today are a reward for thugs living the thug life. They have a better life in prison because they get to be as thuggish as they are allowed, which is substantially more than in the outside community.

It's a prison not a hotel, inmates are punished and not pampered by society.

 

[Sabretooth]

Reminds me of the January 2017 prison riots which left 33 dead. I am only assuming that this is part of the same series.

 

[LeGenD]

Prisons should be rebuilt for solitary confinement of every prisoner. Each small cell having a shower, a toilet and a bed, and a window. This would prevent every form of violence prisoners do in prison. The is the only sane prison reform. There are some made whose only 'joy' in life is making hell for everyone else. Solitary confinement would isolate the hell to these individuals. They would live in their own hell. Everyone else would enjoy reading books or looking out the window.

Prisons today are a reward for thugs living the thug life. They have a better life in prison because they get to be as thuggish as they are allowed, which is substantially more than in the outside community.

I agree with this view. Prisons in Pakistan should be designed in this manner.

Gang Wars in prisons indicate that the inmates haven't learned a lesson, and are rather enjoying their stay there. Long-term solitary confinement for each inmate would kill the statusquo.

 

[nahtanbob]

Outrage in Paraguay after Brazil cartel boss kills woman in his prison cell
Marcelo Pinheiro’s murder of Lidia Meza, 18, in an apparent attempt to avoid extradition, highlights a culture of impunity

Paraguayans have been left shocked and outraged after a jailed cartel boss murdered a young woman inside his high-security cell, in an apparent attempt to avoid extradition to neighbouring Brazil.

The case has underscored the scale of criminal impunity in the landlocked South American country – and fuelled fears of more violence to come.

Marcelo “Piloto” Pinheiro was seized in a joint operation by Brazilian, Paraguayan and US anti-drug authorities in December. A leading figure in Rio de Janeiro’s sprawling criminal group Comando Vermelho (Red Command), he had been on the run from Brazilian authorities and operating from Paraguay since 2012.

He faces 26 years in prison for armed robbery, and charges of homicide, arms smuggling and drug-trafficking.

After his capture, Pinheiro sought to implicate a web of politicians, judges and police and admitted that he hoped to stay in a Paraguayan jail – which are notorious for offering luxury “VIP cells” in exchange for bribes – rather than face tough justice in Brazil. “Paraguay is the country of impunity and corruption,” he told reporters.

Yet as his extradition drew closer, police foiled multiple armed efforts to free him from a riot police barracks in Asunción, Paraguay’s capital.

On Saturday afternoon, soon after a visit by his lawyer, Pinheiro received Lidia Meza, 18, alone in his cell.

According to Paraguayan authorities, Pinheiro then knocked Meza out before stabbing her 16 times with a dessert knife. She was brought to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.

It is unclear why Meza was in his cell. Suggestions she was a sex worker have been denied by her parents. Local media reported it was her second visit.

Pinheiro’s lawyer immediately called for his client to face murder charges in Paraguay.

But Paraguay’s president, Mario Abdo Benítez, instead ordered Pinheiro’s extradition to Brazil, where he is now being held in solitary confinement in a maximum-security federal prison.

In an emotional video shared on social media, a mourner at Meza’s funeral wept as she followed the ambulance Meza’s family borrowed to use as a hearse.

“They’re killing us like dogs,” she said. “A handful of Brazilians come and do whatever they want in our country, kill a tiny girl from the countryside, seize the border and run everything from a jail cell. Everything is for sale for a few dirty pesos.”

Since late 2016 Comando Vermelho has been locked in a bloody battle with a rival cartel, Primero Comando da Capital (First Capital Command), for control of cocaine and marijuana-smuggling routes from Paraguay.

Analysts fear that the as-yet unclear security policies of Brazil’s rightwing president-elect, Jair Bolsonaro, could push some crime groups across the border.

The result could be even worse corruption and violence, said Andrew Nickson, a Paraguay expert at the University of Birmingham. “The Paraguayan state hardly has the power to withstand what they are doing even now,” Nickson said.