Hundreds of prisoners died and the story of power struggles in Brazilian prisons

This is the second major "earthquake" of violence to erupt in recent months, shaking the South American country - where the prison system is often overloaded and underfunded.

Police patrol around Altamira prison after the incident on July 29. Photo: AFP

Gang war

According to CNN, the riot began when a local gang entered a section of the prison in Para state that was “controlled” by a rival gang. Gang members set fire to part of the prison complex, causing most of the 57 victims to die of smoke inhalation.

According to Brazilian state media, the violence broke out at around 7am local time and lasted for several hours, not being contained until midday the same day.

AFP news agency quoted a prison official in the Para state government as saying that in a fight that occurred at Altamira prison in the northern Brazilian state, two prison guards were taken hostage but were later released.

News programs aired footage of prisoners sitting on the roof of the prison, brandishing knives and shielding their heads as smoke billowed from inside the building.

This coincides with a statement issued by the prison department after the incident, saying that they did not find any guns or ammunition at the scene, but it appeared that many modified knives were used by the gangs during the melee.

The Brazilian Ministry of Justice and Public Security said that the ringleaders of the violence will be transferred to federal prisons, which have higher security. Specifically, 10 of the 16 people believed to be instigators of violence will be sent to federal prisons, while more than 46 other inmates will be transferred to other prisons in the state of Para.

In fact, this is not the first time violence has broken out at Altamira prison, but just the latest in a string of deadly incidents that have taken place in recent months in Brazil's often overcrowded and underfunded prison system.

Last September, a similar brawl in Altamira left at least seven inmates dead, and was reported by local media. More recently, in May 2019, 55 inmates died in gang-related violence at four prisons in the neighboring western state of Amazonas.

Brazilian riot police prepare to enter a prison in the city of Manaus during riots in May. Photo: Getty

Local authorities said at the time that the deaths were all due to violent conflicts between rival factions within the same drug trafficking gang.

Benjamin Lessing, a professor at the University of Chicago who studies prison gangs in Brazil, said that while there may have been local factors in the violence on July 29, the attacks were also part of an ongoing war between Brazil’s two main gangs and a “series of local gangs.”

“Most of the violence happens in this area, the north and the northeast, and this is where these gangs actively fight each other to achieve what they call local hegemony, or at least to mark out their territory,” Lessing analyzed.

This expert added that this does not mean that these gangs are not present in the rest of Brazil, but at the moment the North-Northeast region of the country is the "hot spot".

Prison Overcrowding - Systemic Flaw?

Some 311 inmates are held at Altamira Prison. While authorities say the prison is not “overcrowded,” reports say it has a capacity of just 200. Gangs have historically been based in Rio de Janeiro, but over the past few decades their networks have spread to other parts of Brazil.

Therefore, Brazil is currently the country with the third largest prison population in the world, after the US and China. According to statistics, as of June 2017, the South American country had 762,354 prisoners. This number is far from the actual capacity of prisons in Brazil, when according to estimates in the same year 2017, the maximum number of inmates in detention facilities could only "load" 423,242 people.

Brazil’s prison system has been plagued by years of violence, which analysts say is due to systemic failures. Its top prison official was forced to resign in 2017 after a string of problems involving drugs, corruption, prison escapes and riots.

Experts estimate that hundreds of people die each year in prison violence in this country. Prison conditions are considered poor and squalid, with most inmates being poor, black and uneducated.

Human rights groups have accused the Brazilian government of doing too little to stop violence in prisons, turning them into recruitment centers for gangs and even facilitating clashes by allowing cells to become "overcrowded".

On this, expert Lessing stated: “When we lock up more and more people, we are adding fuel to the fire. We are putting more people into the hands of prison gangs, giving them more ability to recruit members."

Relatives wait for information about prisoners after a deadly riot in Para state. Photo: AFP

“Brazilian policymakers have typically responded to the prison crisis by building more prisons, toughening sentences, and separating gang leaders from their underlings,” said Robert Muggah, research director at the Igarape Institute, a research group in Rio de Janeiro.

Meanwhile, according to him, “the only way the Brazilian government can reverse the situation in the short term is to reduce the number of existing prisoners as well as limit the increase of prisoners.” It can be seen that the clashes and fights on Monday once again sounded the alarm about the difficult problems that Brazil's prison system is facing.

The situation also poses a challenge for the country's new far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who has pledged to crack down on criminal gangs and prison violence.