Diseases cause 62% of deaths in Brazilian prisons, study shows

Deaths that occur within Brazilian prisons are caused, in 62% of cases, by diseases such as heart failure, sepsis or generalized infection, pneumonia and tuberculosis. The data are contained in a study commissioned by the National Council of Justice (CNJ). The survey was conducted by professors Maíra Rocha Machado, from the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), and Natália Pires Vasconcelos, from the Teaching and Research Institute (Insper), who looked into more than 112,000 cases in which punishment was terminated in reason for the condemned person’s death, between 2017 and 2021. In the case of tuberculosis, for example, the chance of catching the disease within the prison system is 30 times greater than that observed in the free population. The risk of death from cachexia – extreme weakening – is 1,350% higher among those in jail than in the general population, highlighted the CNJ. Deaths were boosted during the covid-19 pandemic, points out the report, due to the suspension of family visits, in which there was reinforcement in food, as well as the interruption of medical care and the distribution of medicines for the treatment of diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. “A lot dies, little is known, almost nothing is recorded. It is practically not responsible, nor is it repaired”, says the document Prison Lethality: a Question of Justice and Public Health. The study also indicates the occurrence of underreporting of deaths and affirms the need to expand the provision of health services to people in state custody. The study concludes that the so-called natural death “is, in fact, the result of a long and tortuous process of illness, lack of assistance, wasting and death”. Deaths caused by firearm injuries and aggression by cutting, penetrating, perforating or blunt objects inside the prison unit, added to deaths by indirect hanging, add up to 25% of deaths in prisons. Another 15% are caused by mechanical asphyxiation, strangulation, or indirect suffocation and unspecified asphyxiations. In the universe surveyed, among those who returned to social life, the average time of life was 548 days, with 28% of deaths caused by violent events. The document recommends 36 measures, such as coordinated actions to overcome human rights violations and the mobilization of judges and courts to guarantee strategic measures. The full survey is available on the CNJ website.

Agência Brasil