Lower liability age could worsen prison conditions

Justice Minister José Eduardo Cardoso said Tuesday (June 23) during the launch event for the National Survey of Prison Data that lowering the age of criminal responsibility in Brazil will make the prison system condition even worse. The document provides a summary of state prison data and reported that the country's prison population is 607,000 in absolute numbers – the world's fourth largest, behind only the United States, China, and Russia.

The minister pointed out that the Brazilian prisons are in very poor condition. “We do have a few good prisons. But overall, the situation is critical. I'm convinced that [many of the] public security problems in the country are a result of the [poor] conditions of our prison system,” he said. The occupancy rate in Brazilian prisons (161%) is also striking: an area designed to accommodate ten prisoners will end up holding 16.

The survey showed that the bed deficit in Brazilian prisons exceeds 231,000. “We decided to expand our current facilities to create an extra 40,000 beds – to the best of our possibilities,” Cardozo said. But according to projections, should the age of criminal responsibility be lowered, the number of young people involved with such offenses as drug trafficking and theft would be about as much as the number of new beds. “In other words, [the extra capacity] we'll be able to create in four years will be taken up in a year by young inmates alone,” he said.

Moreover, Brazil will have more than 1 million prisoners by 2022 based on the current incarceration pace, according to the minister. He mentioned international studies that show lowering the age of criminal responsibility has not been proved to lower violence rates. “We need to discuss different alternatives,” he urged.

Among the solutions proposed by the government, Cardozo highlighted severer punishment for adults committing crimes along with minors or leading minors into wrongdoing. Another proposal is longer juvenile correction stays for young people, going from a maximum three years to a maximum eight.

The minister said that the document with data on the critical situation of Brazil's prison system will be submitted to Congress “for all deputies and senators to review and gain insight into the issue of lowering the age of criminal responsibility.”

Translated by Mayra Borges