Unprecedented jailbreak in Brazil puts maximum security prisons to the test

On early Tuesday morning, February 13, two dangerous prisoners, who were serving their sentences in one of the five maximum security prisons spread across Brazil, escaped. The inmates — imprisoned in a jail located in Mossoró, in the interior of the State of Rio Grande do Norte — were members of the Comando Vermelho, one of the most powerful Brazilian criminal groups. The jailbreak — the first in the federal penitentiary system, which was created in 2006 by the first administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, due to the inability of state authorities to manage the prisons — has put the maximum security network to the test. It has become a serious crisis for Minister of Justice Ricardo Lewandowski, who has been in office for just 15 days.

Four months ago, both inmates were transferred to the intensely-supervised prison that they escaped from, after leading a riot in a prison in the state of Acre that left five inmates dead, three of them decapitated. The minister has proposed building walls around prisons, in addition to increasing the number of guards.

The clues collected by investigators indicate that — according to the local press — the prisoners were able to take advantage of the fact that the yard is under renovation. They obtained construction materials that helped them escape. They allegedly made a hole in the ceiling of their cell and then cut through the fence, according to the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.

The authorities haven’t provided details regarding how the escape of 36-year-old Rogério da Silva Mendonça, 36 — nicknamed “Tatu” — and 34-year-old Deibson Cabral Nascimento occurred. Both were subjected to the harshest prison regime. Minister Lewandowski described the event as “serious” in a press conference, but added: “It occurred [following] a series of negative coincidences, fortuitous circumstances that, unfortunately, facilitated the escape.”

In the morning, from Mossoró Prison, National Secretary of Penitentiary Policy André García emphasized that, “if the security protocols had been respected, there would have been no possibility of an escape occurring.” The senior ministry official has avoided speculating about the circumstances. “We haven’t ruled out any of the possibilities: the relaxed [attitude of the guards], the facilitation [of the escape by certain guards], or whatever the investigation tells us. I cannot say more.”

Minister Ricardo Lewandowski, 75, recently retired as a Supreme Court judge. He took over the Ministry of Justice on February 1. Since the inmates escaped, he has ordered the administrators of the Mossoró Prison to be immediately suspended from their duties. He has also decreed that — for now — visits and going out to the yard are prohibited.

The governor of Río Grande do Norte, Fátima Bezerra, has deployed a manhunt that includes road patrols and helicopter flights across the area. The neighboring states of Paraíba and Ceará have also been notified. The governor belongs to the Workers’ Party, the same party as President Lula, who’s on an official trip to Egypt.

There are five federal prisons in Brazil, in five states. They were created to isolate and properly monitor the top bosses of the main criminal organization in Brazil, the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), which is a kind of brotherhood of gangs, including the Comando Vermelho and other local groups. The PCC and the Comando Vermelho are dedicated to drug-trafficking — among other illicit businesses — and dominate prisons in different corners of the country.

The federal penitentiary system is quite different from the ordinary network of prisons, which depends on the state governments. These regular prisons often end up being run by the criminals themselves: there’s plenty of violence, while even basic things — sometimes even food — are missing. And if the prisoners don’t have relatives to bring them food or personal hygiene products, they’re totally abandoned behind bars.

In maximum security prisons, such as the one where the escape occurred — or the one in the capital of Brasília, where the top leader of the PCC, Marco Wilians Herbas Camacho, is being held — each prisoner receives a tracksuit, sneakers, a change of clothes and a toothbrush. There are no gyms or kitchens. The patios are covered by mesh. The water in the shower turns off after five minutes. Inmates receive razor blades that they must return as soon as they finish shaving. They can have books, but smoking is prohibited.

These federal facilities are extremely different from ordinary prisons. But in Brazil, there’s also a third model: prisons in which the inmates act as guards and where weapons are prohibited. Very few Brazilians are jailed in such institutions, but the concept has been expanding.

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