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The death of Elias Pereira da Silva, Elias Maluco, found with signs of hanging on Tuesday (22) in his cell at the Federal Penitentiary of Catanduvas, in western Paraná, left apprehensive families of inmates in the federal prison system – many continued taking antidepressants.
Family members heard by Twitter They claim that the increasing restrictions on visits to the country’s maximum security prisons – which they say is inhumane – also ends up punishing wives and children, affecting the detainee’s mental health. Forbidden to have an intimate visit since August 2017, these prisoners also lost in February last year the right to maintain personal contact with their families.
They serve a sentence in this model because the authorities designate them as the most dangerous detainees; many are heads of criminal factions.
The OAS (Organization of American States) demanded measures from the Brazilian government after complaints filed by four detainees who have been in this system for more than 13 years, including Elías Maluco himself, whose death is being investigated as a suicide by the Federal Police . Itamaraty has not yet commented.
Silvana Santos da Silva, 48, with a law degree, says Elías’ death and reports of prisoners with depression increase the insecurity of families. She is the sister of drug trafficker Marcinho VP, one of the detainees who has spent more than 13 years in high security federal prisons.
We just want a normal visit, a hug. My brother has a family, he is not an animal. No one hints that he is innocent, that he has not committed a crime. Are they not serving time under state responsibility? So the state needs to give guarantees. Families are thinking, ‘Who will be next?’
Silvana Santos da Silva, sister of Marcinho VP
In February 2019, Ordinance 157 of Sergio Moro, then Minister of Justice and Public Security, prohibited social visits in federal prisons. Since then, meetings with family members began to take place in parliament, as the space that separates prisoners and visitors by glass is called, in communication that is made by telephone.
The prohibition of intimate and social visits was part of the package. anti-crime and, in December, won state Of law. The situation worsened during the new coronavirus pandemic, when contacts began to occur only through videoconferencing.
‘It affects the whole family’
Relatives of federal prison inmates report a scenario of despair, aggravated after the death of Elías Maluco. According to the death certificate, to which the Twitter He had access yesterday, he died of mechanical asphyxia, hanging and compression of the neck.
It is the second death with these characteristics in recent months in federal prisons. In April, Paulo Rogério de Souza Paz, Mica, was found dead in his cell at the Mossoró Federal Penitentiary (RN).
Self-employed Karen Cristina Silva Bastos Veiga, 40, moved to Porto Velho (RO) in January 2019. The idea was to avoid travel expenses to find her husband, the drug trafficker Marcelo Fernando Pinheiro da Veiga, Marcelo Piloto, who is serving a sentence in the municipality’s federal prison.
The last time they met in person was February 2019. A mother of two, Karen says the inability to socialize doesn’t just affect her husband.
When I found out what happened, I even started using tranquilizers. People can’t stand it anymore. But it affects the whole family. My 15-year-old son is going into depression because he misses his father
Karen Cristina Silva Bastos Vega, wife of Marcelo Piloto
“The treatment of the prisoners is inhumane. The government should make the visit known. It seems that the worst is happening again,” he says, referring to the deaths of Elías Maluco and Mica. Karen also complains about the difficulty in accessing medical treatment, which worsens the mental health of the detainees.
‘Families are criminalized’
Daughter of drug trafficker Fabiano Atanasio, FB, student Fabianny Atanasio Madureira da Silva, 23, links the cases of depression in federal prisons with family isolation.
After the visitation ban, the prisoners’ physical and mental health worsened. Contact with the family makes the inmates improve in all aspects. But this is not being taken into account. Other lives are also being destroyed
Fabianny Atanasio, daughter of FB
“Families are criminalized and humiliated. I am a law student, I live in a different reality. But society does not want to know that. Unfortunately, our routine is to live with uncertainty and insecurity. Often, we call the jail and just say that it is good. It doesn’t satisfy our need to know them, “he says.
Defenders challenge changes to the law
The situation in federal prisons is closely monitored by the DPU (Defensoria Pública da União), which questions the ban on visits, a measure that is part of the anti-crime package. But the agency also criticizes the revision of the term of stay in federal prisons, extended from one to three years.
“This will contribute to increasing the permanence of detainees in this system. So that the regime does not become a cruel punishment, what is expected is that the term will be reduced,” argues federal public defender Alexandre Kaiser Rauber.
He cites federal prisons as an exception regime in the country, where the leaders of factions and rebellions are sent to isolate. “It is already a strict regime, which was facilitated by family visits. Without it, the cases of patients who use drugs to control anxiety increase ”, explains Rauber.
Wanted for Twitter, Depen (National Penitentiary Department) said that it followed the Penal Execution Law and provided assistance to all detainees.
