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An aggressive campaign against crime, a crackdown on criminals and a program to put them behind bars, along with the rapid construction of new, more secure prisons.
All of these things contributed to the recent uprising of criminal groups in the state of São Paulo, in the Brazilian Southeast, says Paulo Mesquita, a political scientist at the University of São Paulo's Center for the Study of Violence (Núcleo de Estudos da Violência da Universidade de São Paulo) (USP). "With all these things going on it is difficult to maintain control of penitentiaries. You do not have time to train new directors and prison agents. You also do not have time to deal with the historical problems of prison violence, corruption and overcrowding," says Mesquita. What happens under these circumstances is that groups inside the penitentiaries get "slices of power." When you disturb these people, which is what happened when São Paulo authorities decided to transfer inmate leaders to maximum security prisons last week, you get a reaction. The reaction this time was much more violent than ever before, explains Mesquita. The right way to deal with this in the short-term, Mesquita goes on, is to punish those responsible for the violence. "The punishment of those who ordered the assassinations of policemen and the prison rebellions is absolutely necessary." In the long-term the states and the federal government have to work together to reform and improve the penitentiary system, says Mesquita. "It is very important not to exploit this politically. Avoid a conflict between the state and the federal governments.... And it is essential for civil society to be involved in finding solutions. That is the only way to make progress in dealing with the underlying problems that cause these rebellions." Agência Brasil
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The root of these problems is poverty, the lack of access to opportunity and a feeling of alienation, why would people feel bound by rules set by a Nation State that ignores them, oppresses them and when they have contact with that State it is violent against them?
Instead of spending millions on more places to lock people away maybe they should try using that money and drive to improve education, health and life in general for the communities that these people come from, address the problems that lead to people turning to drugs , selling sex and crime.
From where I stand it seems to me that building more prisons will not address the underling problems and so will just fill up and even more will be needed as the underling problems that draw children to drugs, crime and selling sex will still be there will lines of people waiting to join.