Incarcerated black population sees highest level in record

The 2022 yearbook of the Brazilian Forum on Public Security (FBSP) registered 442,033 black people incarcerated in Brazil—68.2 percent of the total prison population, the highest in this time series, which began in 2005.

In 2021, the amount added up to 67.5 percent. In 2005, however, blacks made up 58.4 percent of inmates. Whites were 197,084 in 2022, 30.4 percent of the total. In 2005, they amounted to 39.8 percent of the prison population.

“The Brazilian prison network lays bare structural racism. If from 2005 to 2022 there was a 215 percent growth in the incarcerated white population, there was a 381.3 percent growth in the black population,” the yearbook reads.

Altogether, the number of detainees in the Brazilian prison system surged from 815,165 in 2021 to 826,740 in 2022. The ratio of inmates per vacancy also rose, from 1.3 to 1.4 in the same time span, which shows the system has come under even further overcapacity. According to the document, 230,578 more individuals are deprived of their liberty than the facilities can hold.

“Overcrowding and unsanitary conditions linger on. The physical and moral integrity of those in deprivation of liberty is trivialized. A culture of incarceration becomes even more prevalent, as the over-representation of black people increases. As the government fails to take action, it legitimizes inequality as well as the ripples of structural racism,” the report points out.

Unconvicted prisoners

The yearbook also shows a proportional decrease in provisional prisoners—those detained before a trial. In 2020, they formed 30.2 percent of the total; in 2021, 28.5 percent. In 2022, they reach 25.3 percent.

“We may be facing the impacts of the increasingly consistent implementation of custody hearings, whose inaugural milestone dates back to 2015. Even with the decrease to celebrate, we are still dealing with 210,687 people deprived of their liberty before a conviction,” the text says.