Unlike the men's prisons, most women's prisons did not have very large exercise areas. 76 The physical infrastructure of the women's facilities tended to be in good condition-much better than the men's facilities-with decent paint, tile bathrooms, and functioning sinks and toilets. A few women's prisons, such as the Natal and Brasília facilities, were at or slightly below capacity. At the São Paulo Women's Penitentiary, for example, we saw two women living in each individual cell, and we were told that three women had been squeezed into someĬells during recent renovations. Most women's prisons are overcrowded, although to a lesser extent than the men's prisons. Many are located in buildings converted from a previous use-the João Pessoa women's prison islocated in a former convent, for example-or in small annexes adjoining larger men's prisons. The vast majority of women's prisons, however, hold fewer than a hundred inmates.
The São Paulo Women's Penitentiary, the largest women's prison in the country, has four main cellblocks for a total capacity of 256, although it has held up to 400 female inmates the Women's House of Detention in Tatuapé, in the state of São Paulo, also holds over 200 inmates.
Reflecting the small number of female prisoners in each state, the women's prisons are small facilities, none of which approach the dimensions of the larger men's prisons. At present, the women's prisons tend to have better levels of staffing than do the men's prisons, resulting in somewhat more supervision and assistance. The São Paulo Women's Penitentiary, for example, was managed by an order of Catholic nuns until 1980. Indeed, in the facilities we visited, roughly half of the female inmates were held for drug crimes, usually for very low-level offenses.Īs was once common in Latin America, many of the women's prisons were formerly administered by nuns. On the other hand, women prisoners also bear special burdens, in particular, limited recreational facilities and discrimination in conjugal visiting rights.Įven more so than the men's prison population, the women's prison population includes a large proportion of inmates charged or convicted under the country's drug laws. Overall, women prisoners tend to enjoy greater access to work opportunities suffer less custodial violence, and are provided greater material support. Yet female inmates are generally spared some of the worst aspects of the men's prisons. Like their male counterparts, many women prisoners suffer harsh conditions of confinement and abusive treatment, including overcrowded penal facilities, insufficient medical and legal assistance, and the inadequate provision of basic supplies. The penal system's gender distribution roughly approximates that found in other countries in the region. The country's prisons, jails and police lockups confine some 8,510 female inmates, constituting about 4 percent of the inmate population. In Brazil, as elsewhere, the female inmate population is small by comparison to the male inmate population. HRW: Behind Bars in Brazil (Women Prisoners)ĭISCIPLINE, PUNISHMENT, AND TREATMENT BY GUARDs
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