Putim prison is a

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

São José dos Campos São José dos Campos (, meaning Saint Joseph of the Fields) is a major city and the seat of the municipality of the same name in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. One of the leading industrial and research centers with emphasis in aerospace scien ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Escapes

On June 6, 1999, 345 out of 456 prisoners escaped from Putim prison, a record for the

ian prison system. Another breakout took place at the jail last Christmas. This latest escape was the eighth in the brief history of the prison, which opened in 1995. Putim is not underequipped; it has a closed-circuit television and radio system in addition to

electronic lock An electronic lock (or electric lock) is a locking device which operates by means of electric current. Electric locks are sometimes stand-alone with an electronic control assembly mounted directly to the lock. Electric locks may be connected to ...

s and alarms. São Paulo's secretary of Public Security, Marco Antônio Petrelluzzi, declared: "This was worse than just poor management. I am convinced that there was criminal participation. We believe that people inside the prison were bribed to allow the jail break. The Putim episode is just part of frightening statistics showing that in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

alone 1,245 wardens were recently indicted during a 17-month period for assisting or looking the other way during jailbreaks. Escapes from prisons across the country have become increasingly common. One week after the Putim breakout 63 more inmates escaped from prison at the Sumaré First Police District in São Paulo. This time four armed men broke into the prison, which held 76 inmates, even though it was built for a maximum capacity of 24 prisoners. Thirteen inmates elected to remain in jail The fugitives stole four cars that were parked close to the police station.

Prison system

The precarious situation of the Brazilian prison system was criticized in the report Brazil Behind Bars released in 1998 by the

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

NGO (non-governmental organization). According to James Cavallaro, the organization's director in Brazil, the Putim breakout reflects a prison system incapable of giving adequate treatment to prisoners and guaranteeing prison security: "Inmates" living conditions in Brazil are the worst, and security is lacking. Because of this, escapes and rebellions may become bigger and more frequent. An inmate can do whatever he wants, since it is very easy to take a warden as hostage."

References

Prisons in Brazil {{prison-stub