Justice minister blames carnage at Brazilian prison on outsourcer

Brazil's Justice Minister Alexandre Moraes has assigned all “visible and immediate accountability” for the massacre at Anísio Jobim prison complex (COMPAJ) in Manaus, Amazonas state, to Umanizzare, a third-party prison services provider that runs the facility.

“If you look at the facts, you will find it was the company's fault. How come cold weapons and firearms got in there and everybody knew that from inmates' selfies posted online? Immediate responsibility for checking on that and the holiday celebration [held by inmates and posted on social media] was the security contractor's,” the minister said at a press conference at the presidential Planalto palace today (Dec 5), playing down state accountability in the episode.

In response to the minister's statement, Umanizzare contended that based on the terms and conditions of the contract governing its services, the Amazonas state government is solely responsible for security and surveillance at the prison facilities.

In a statement, the company pointed out that the outsourcing contract included joint management  terms, and that state authorities were responsible for deciding on the capacity and inmate distribution at each facility. Moreover, it went on, a public official appointed by the State Prison Administration Secretariat was ub cgarge of supervising the facilities to ensure observance of the contract terms and conditions.

Contract provisions

Umanizzare maintained it was responsible for building cleaning, equipment and facility maintenance, and for making sure electronic security systems, including security cameras, were in perfect working order. The contract went on to cover adequate inmate meals; legal, material, and psychological assistance, as well as occupational activities and vocational training.

Umanizzare runs six prisons in Amazonas. For COMPAJ alone—the prison where the massacre took place—the state government says it paid $94.3 million to the company in 2016. Total payments between 2013 and 2016 amounted to almost $213 million.

On Wednesday (4), prosecutors with the Amazonas Court of Audits asked the court (TCE) to rule that the state government terminate joint management-based prison contracts. They argued there was evidence of irregularities including overpricing, misuse of public funds, and mismanagement.

National Public Security Plan

Despite criticism of the government for outsourcing the administration of the Manaus prison where the riot carnage took place, Minister Moraes said a new National Public Security Plan that is currently being drafted is not going to change prison outsourcing regulations.

According to the minister, one of the challenges with the new plan is improving the efficiency of Brazil's prison system to serve three purposes: reduce murder and gender-related killings, improve integrated law enforcement for crossborder crime—usually related to big gangs of drug and heavy weapon smugglers—and modernising the prison system.

“Building new prisons is not going to solve the issues of the prison system by itself,” Moraes said. “We have to rationalise Brazil's penitentiary system. We send a lot of people to jail, but we do it wrong. We jail them quantitatively not qualitatively,” he said.

Moraes also urged improving alternative solutions to incarceration, including the use of electronic ankle monitors and rights restrictions. Moreover, the minister believes that Brazilian laws should be changed to avoid significant reductions in the jail sentences of violent criminals.

“Under the currenty laws, when a convict of a serious felony has served one-sixth of their jail sentence, they are eligible to obtain a partial imprisonment benefit and get back to the street. We have to change that. We are going to propose changing laws to require violent inmates to serve at least half of their sentences,” the minister said.

Translated by Mayra Borges