NEWS FROM BRAZIL supplied by SEJUP (Servico
Brasileiro de Justica e Paz).
Number 496, September 19, 2003
This week´s SEJUP focuses on conditions in the public facilities that house
adolescent offenders. Special thanks to Linnis Cook for her help in
translating this article which was published in the Jornal do Advogado,
official organ of the São Paulo bar association, in August, 2003.
FEBEM Outlaw Institution
By Suzana Lakatos
Scenes of torture, extreme overcrowding and lack of educational projects,
some FEBEM units in São Paulo function as prisons where the principles of
the Child and Adolescent Code are buried.
The challenge for lawyer members of the Working Group for the
Implementation of ECA (the Child and Adolescent Code), linked to the bar's
Human Rights Commission, is to expose the irregularities that have been
historically practiced in diverse institutions of the State Foundation for
the Well-being of Minors, FEBEM-SP. In two years of work, they can attest
that many units of FEBEM-SP function as prisons and fail to fulfill their
socio-educational mission that the law demands.
It is true that the São Paulo bar has persistently denounced the extreme
overcrowding, the continuing practice of torture and the absence of
educational and social projects. "Discovering what happens behind those
walls is a challenge. Despite the promises of transparency by its current
director, FEBEM continues to demand prior notice of the lawyers' visits to
the institutions," says João José Sady, coordinator of the Human Rights
Commission. "The only trustworthy information that we have is the result
of investigation and work with other social agencies that exist
independently of FEBEM.
According to Sady, intense pressure was necessary to be able to enter the
units and reveal the extent of the violence to public opinion. "Even with
prior notice given for the visits, we witnessed horrendous cases of heads
swathed in bandages from beatings, nails pulled out and rapes," according
to Ariel de Castro Alves, activist for six years as coordinator of the
Working Group for the Implementation of ECA. "Furthermore, the prohibition
of free access only strengthens the thesis that the torture is done with
the collusion of the administration. Even the Protective Counselors suffer
criminally illegal restrictions by the administration," he states.
Despite its bankruptcy, the prison model predominates in FEBEM. The
complex of units in the town of Franco da Rocha, for example, functions as
a penitentiary and concentrates youths who have broken the law, sometimes
more than once. The concentration there of youths with this profile allows
other units in other locations to have a better appearance, but nonetheless
they equally have no unified pedagogical project. "Each unit reflects the
quality of the shift boss, who is politically selected," Sady observes.
The always alleged lack of funds is not the cause of the breakdown. The
State of São Paulo destines a million dollars to FEBEM. Poorer states,
like Pará and Roraima, already have developed models that result in low
rates of recidivism, and they have received prizes from ILANUD (the U.N.´s
Latin American institution for crime prevention and delinquent
treatment). "Here, what is lacking is the application of the law,"
says
Ariel de Castro. In practice, ECA requires small units, for up to 40
people, division by type of infraction and age, and the implementation of a
socio-educational project that gives the adolescent other future possibilities.
Another specialist in the subject, the lawyer Francisco Lúcio França,
member of the Working Group and of the organization Tortura Nunca Mais
(Torture Never Again) hopes for the transfer of the units from state to
municipal administration to make the institutions work. "Today the Franco
da Rocha complex maintains youth who are long distances from their homes,
and whose families have no economic resources to be able to visit them," he
observes.
Defined by França as "a child concentration camp" the complex at
Franco da
Rocha received two visits by the bar association. The first, in November,
2002, resulted in a report with the suggestive title of "Torture Center for
Young People and Adolescents." The second, in June, 2003, saw repeated
evidence of gross irregularities. Before this, there were denunciations of
bad treatment and torture in the document "Lives Wasted," by Amnesty
International.
In the nine units of the complex are 900 adolescents. Units 30 and 31, that
house more than half of the detained population of the complex, have had
their closure judicially mandated on various occasions, but they have
continued to be used "provisionally" for over three years. Only now,
with
the inauguration of Vila Maria, unit 30 is being shut down. "However, Vila
Maria is a long way from being a solution," says Ariel de Castro. With its
capacity for 120 residents, the new unit replicates the prison model of
extreme restriction and simply changes the address of the problem. "The
way that they are treated, they will return in worse form to society," the
lawyer warns, as he reminds us that each month approximately 20 former
residents of FEBEM are killed upon returning to crime. It is suspected that
they are victims of extermination groups.
In Franco da Rocha and in other large complexes, such as in Tatuapé and
Raposo Tavares, there is the system called "leather and harness." It
consists in leaving the youth locked up for 24 hours, with only their
underwear, without mattress or other covers. If there is any movement,
groups of 30 to 40 employees enter the cells and beat the victims randomly
with pieces of iron or wood which are covered with rags to diminish bruising.
Suffocation is also used in order not to leave marks, explains Ariel de
Castro. "They choose the most rebellious adolescent and put his head under
water until it turns purple. The others are obliged to watch while on their
knees while at the same time they also are beaten. This was verified this
June, and Amnesty International, which accompanied the visit, was shocked
with the situation." And these are not isolated incidents. Of the 231
adolescents visited, nearly 80 exhibited marks of maltreatment. "We noted
furthermore that the targets are principally knees and elbows, so as not to
leave evidence. It is a recycling of torture," the lawyer affirms.
The cruelty of the situation has also mobilized the Department of Justice.
Last year, investigations at the Tatuapé unit revealed the presence of
instruments of torture in the administration office, which generated
criminal proceedings and a determination of pre-trial detention for
fourteen employees, eleven of whom fled prior to their imprisonment. Since
then, the prosecutors involved have received threats as they called the
youths to make pre-trial depositions. The actions of the Working Group of
the bar association, in their turn, have resulted in at least seven
lawsuits, in which 98 employees of FEBEM will respond to accusations of
having practiced torture.
Since he embraced this cause, João Sady witnessed the departure of three of
FEBEM's directors. The employees most identified with reactionary policies
reacted against the transfer of FEBEM to the Department of Education and to
the selection of the current president, the prosecutor Paulo Sérgio de
Oliveira, who arrived promising changes and transparency. "There is a
sensation today that he is trying to fix the airplane while in flight and
he is unable to fulfill his obligation to humanize the institution,"
affirms Sady.
In reaction, the employees actually incited rebellions among the interned
youth. Their reaction has its root in that which Sady calls the "mafia of
the big guys." The existence of this important group is pointed out also by
the lawyer Francisco Lúcio França, who says that it is responsible for the
dismissal of the employees that do not become accessories to torture. Worse
yet, the group guarantees protection for those that use violent methods.
"There is a culture of impunity," he says. Ariel de Castro mentions
that
"In the shadows of impunity the cases multiply of employees who form
gangs. These groups are being investigated for facilitating
escapes. Another benefit gained from the rebellions is that in these
crises, the salaries of the employee gangs can quadruple."
According to João Sady, there are indications that in the last ten years
FEBEM has been directed by a group of powerful people. Furthermore, he
thinks, "There should not be an institution like FEBEM without career plans
and continuous education for the employees." In fact, a monitor, who deals
directly with the interned youth, receives three days of training. "The
trainee will learn how to handle a billy club. Then imagine a group of
eight monitors to manage a group of 500 delinquents. The resulting beating
becomes banalized, and worse, a form of power." The solution would be in
the implantation of small, more controllable units and in the development
of adequate methods of containment. The question is when is this going to
happen.
In 68 institutions of internment, FEBEM of the state of São Paulo houses
about six thousand adolescents between 12 and 21 years old, who have
committed infractions. A majority have their origins in the peripheries of
the capital city of São Paulo. Almost all come from poor or lower middle
class families, but are not street children. Extremely rarely are youths
from the middle or upper classes found in the institutions. Only 5% of
those interned are female. Involvement with drugs and crimes against
property, principally robbery, are the most frequent crimes. Homicides,
kidnaping and rape make up less than 10% of the cases.
The maximum period of internment should be three years, but there are cases
in which the Department of Justice requests a longer period. Officially
there is a recidivism rate of 7%. But for Ariel de Castro, the statistic
is not reliable. Experiences like those of the São Bernardo do Campo Child
Foundation support the skepticism. Created in 1997 as a substitute for
jailing young delinquents, the institution encountered a recidivism rate of
33%. Today, after the provision of various kinds of support that includes
assistance to families, the rate fell to 6%.
For the president of the Human Rights Commission of the São Paulo bar, João
José Sady, there is also within FEBEM one of the great national shames the
so-called UAI Initial Treatment Unit in the Brás neighborhood of São
Paulo. This is a triage center, and it is always grossly overcrowded. Its
capacity is for 60 internees, but it has an average occupancy of 400, who
spend 45 days shut up there, awaiting a determination of their permanent
destination. "There is simply no space for anything. They stay seated,
watching television, without sunshine or any activity. At bedtime, there
are three on every mattress. There is no solution for the UAI. It needs to
be deactivated," Sady emphasizes.
In the interior of the state, the situation is no better, according to
Ariel de Castro Alves. "In various cities, the young offenders stay in
district jails, separated from adults, but in overcrowded conditions." He
cites as an example Santo André, where there were 30 adolescents in cell of
six square meters and that at one point came to "house" 60 youth.
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