Covid-19 could ignite Brazilian prisons’ powder keg

On May 2, a riot took place at Manaus’ Puraquequara prison. Inmates held seven guards hostage for over five hours before the rebellion was put down by law enforcement — leaving 17 injured, but no deaths. Family members of the prisoners say they were protesting precarious conditions — the police claim they were trying to dig an escape tunnel. 

Three years ago, the state witnessed one of the most gruesome massacres ever recorded in Brazil. After a 17-hour rampage, 56 inmates were killed — many of whom had been decapitated and dismembered. A judge who negotiated the end of the riot called the scenes he found “Dantesque.”

For years, prisons in Amazonas — and the Puraquequara facility, in particular — have been denounced as cesspools of human rights violations by National Mechanism for the Combat of Torture (MNPCT), an institution created as a result of the 2002 United Nations Convention signed by the Brazilian government. A 2019 report describes an environment in which torture and other abuses are common. “While the cost per inmate [in Amazonas] is the highest in Brazil, we have come across with degraded spaces, where no human should be kept. The critical scenario of overcrowding, precarious infrastructure, insufficiency of basic products, lack of access to legal rights, and reports of torture persist,” claimed a group of inspectors.

In 2019, President Jair Bolsonaro tried to fire all MNPCT agents — a decision that was suspended by a legal injunction. The body operates under the umbrella of the Human Rights Ministry — but functions independently.

In an interview with The Brazilian Report, MNPCT agent Bárbara...