Prevention to Torture and Mean, Inhuman, or Humiliating Treatments in the Penitentiary System (BR0091)

Lead government institution Ministry of Justice and Citizenship Civil servant in charge for implementing at lead government institution Maria Gabriela Viana Peixoto Position - Department General Ombudsman/Ombudsman DEPEN E-mail gabriela.peixoto@mj.gov.br Telephone 55 61 20253602 Other involved actors Government Ministry of Justice and Citizenship National Justice Council Ombudsman of Public Defender's Office of the State of São Paulo Civil society, private sector, group of workers and multilateral actors Torture Prevention and Combat National Mechanism (MNPCT) University of Brasília Correctional Pastoral Association of Judges for Democracy (AJD) Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) Status quo or problem/issue to be addressed Need to qualify permanent channels of social participation, as to structure data gathering, its management and organization and information about inputs, documents, contracts and criminal services of the Brazilian Penitentiary System Main objective To improve transparency mechanisms, access to information and legal reporting about the Brazilian prisional system, by transparency coordinated actions, and other open government policies Commitment short description Improvement on the tasks of collecting, organizing and dealing with data and information about the Brazilian prisional system, in order to have good material for an effective social participation OGP Challenge addressed by the Commitment Improving Public Services Increasing public integrity More effective public resources management Increasing Corporate Accountability Commitment relevance Ensure public access to information and safeguard basic rights Goal National database available, produced from inspections carried out by various actors at the correctional system

8. Prevention to Torture and Mean, Inhuman, or Humiliating Treatments in the Penitentiary System

Commitment Text:

Implement a unified and open format computerized prison inspection system, ensuring civil society participation in its development and management

The commitment seeks to essentially provide an open format national data base that is generated from inspections carried out by several actors in the prison system, which promotes an improvement in the work of collecting, managing and organizing data and information on the national penitentiary system and that can be able to provide quality subsides for an effective social participation.

8.1 – Key players mapping and workgroup stakeholders´ establishment

8.2 – Workgroup establishment, with the assignment of defining a standardized form and inspection report database, taking into account institutional particularities

8.3 – Public consultation promoting on the form fields

8.4 – Enhancement development and implementation

8.5 – Launch System

8.6 – Mobilization, and other organizations engagement, in order to integrate the system

8.7 – Training institution on inspections

Responsible institution: Ministry of Justice and Citizenship

Supporting institutions: National Justice Council, Ombudsman of Public Defender's Office of the State of São Paulo, Torture Prevention and Combat National Mechanism (MNPCT), University of Brasília

Correctional Pastoral, Association of Judges for Democracy (AJD), Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT)

Start date: December 2016.. End date: November 2018

Context and Objectives

The penitentiary system in Brazil lacks a centralized, updated, and coherent data system. The commitment aims to implement an integrated, open-format, computerized prison inspection system. The commitment also calls for civil society participation in the system’s development and management. The system will be capable of permanently collecting, managing, and organizing data of the Brazilian Penitentiary System related to inputs, documents, contracts, and criminal services.

Brazil has the fourth largest incarcerated population in the world, with more than 600,000 prisoners, mostly coming from vulnerable populations.[1] Many levels of the prison system, however, lack good data for policy analysis. Civil society organizations referred to the system as a 'black box' policy problem.[2] The commitment aims to gather existing information from inspections conducted inside the prison system. Once categorized and analyzed, the information can be used to shed light on policy issues.

The commitment’s level of specificity is high. The rating reflects the clarity of the key deliverable: the launch of a data system that will integrate penitentiary information in open data format. While the specifics of the data system are unclear, the government outlines a series of cumulative milestones through which the portal will be designed. The government will collaborate with civil society organizations on the design. Steps include the mapping of key players in this field, the establishment of a multi-stakeholder working group, and a public consultation on the portal’s data fields.

The commitment aims to address the OGP value of access to information, with the aid of technology and innovation (i.e., by launching datasets in an open data portal). It also addresses the value of civic participation, with the role of civil society in developing the data portal.

The commitment has a transformative potential impact because it addresses a national priority and responds to a major demand of civil society organizations. The Brazilian penitentiary system has historically suffered from issues such as overcrowding,[3] mismanagement, criminal activity, and poor health conditions.[4] In January 2017 alone, more than 100 prisoners died as a result of violence between criminal factions.[5] In 2017, a member of the National Justice Council reported that there were about 660,000 prisoners in Brazil, despite prisons having a capacity of only about 400,000.[6] The nongovernmental organization Conectas Human Rights also noted that citizens in Brazil are six times more likely to die in prison than if they were not incarcerated.[7]

In response to these issues, civil society has consistently demanded greater transparency in and oversight of the prison system. According to the Brazilian Public Security Forum, 'even today the quality of the data produced leaves much to be desired and reveals little of the reality of the Brazilian prison system.'[8] Civil society groups have also noted the absence of information about female prisoners specifically,[9] as well as a scarcity of data on public spending in this sector.[10] In this context, an open data portal with standardized information about the penitentiary system, designed in collaboration with civil society, has the potential to transform business-as-usual practices.

Completion

There is limited progress on this commitment.

Milestones 8.1-8.4 have begun, but with limited progress. The government mapped key players to form a working group (milestone 8.1). Those key players currently reflect the composition of the commitment’s monitoring group.[11] However, the government did not create the working group (milestone 8.2). Representatives from the government (Victor Martins Pimenta) and civil society (Neide de Sordi) confirmed this.

The government submitted a document with data collection filters for public consultation (milestone 8.3). The Ministry of Justice emailed the document to those following the commitment implementation. The civil society organization interviewee, Neide de Sordi, confirmed having received the information. However, according to Sordi, the consultation method was limited, and the document did not garner much feedback. Sordi noted that the submitted feedback has not been addressed with structured government feedback. The IRM researcher confirmed that the material had not been published yet.

As for the development and implementation of the system (milestone 8.4), the government published a call for proposals in September 2017[12] to select and coordinate the civil society organization that will help implement this activity. The proposal offers high compensation (BRL 600,000) and is aligned with the commitment milestones and delivery dates. The action plan stipulated mid-December as the estimated date of conclusion for the selection.

The other milestones (8.5-8.7) have not been started yet.

The first three milestones were expected to be delivered by October 2017, which puts the commitment behind schedule.

Early Results (if any)

The expected results of the commitment include improved public services, increased public integrity, more effective public resource management, and increased accountability. Given the current state of the penitentiary system, the production of open data as envisioned by the commitment could be transformative. However, due to the limited completion of the commitment, there are no results so far.

Next Steps

After the commitment is implemented, a possible next step would be to use the data for public accountability, particularly in collaboration with civil society organizations. The government could establish a channel through which citizens can request responses, explanations, or consequences from government. Conectas Human Rights argues that if this were to happen, the accountability could reduce torture levels in the penitentiary system. The organization states such a measure could also reduce illegal provisional incarceration, increase access to justice, and enhance protection of vulnerable groups, including female and other gender prisoners.[13]

8. Prevention of Torture and Mean, Inhumane, or Humiliating Treatments in the Penitentiary System

Commitment Text:

Implement a unified and open format computerized prison inspection system, ensuring civil society participation in its development and management.

The commitment seeks to essentially provide an open format national data base that is generated from inspections carried out by several actors in the prison system, which promotes an improvement in the work of collecting, managing and organizing data and information on the national penitentiary system and that can be able to provide quality subsides for an effective social participation.

More specifically, the commitment was set out to achieve the following milestones:

8.1 – Key players mapping and workgroup stakeholders´ establishment

8.2 – Workgroup establishment, with the assignment of defining a standardized form and inspection report database, taking into account institutional particularities

8.3 – Public consultation promoting on the form fields

8.4 – Enhancement development and implementation

8.5 – Launch System

8.6 – Mobilization, and other organizations engagement, in order to integrate the system

8.7 – Training institution on inspections

Responsible institution: Ministry of Justice and Citizenship

Supporting institutions: National Justice Council, Ombudsman of Public Defender's Office of the State of São Paulo, Torture Prevention and Combat National Mechanism (MNPCT), University of Brasília, Correctional Pastoral, Association of Judges for Democracy (AJD), Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT)

Start Date: December 2016...                         End Date: November 2018

Commitment Aim:

The penitentiary system in Brazil lacks a centralized, updated, and coherent data system. The commitment aimed to implement an integrated, open-format, computerized prison inspection system that the public can access. The commitment also called for civil society participation in the system’s development and management.

Status

Midterm: Limited

The government made limited progress on this commitment, and it was behind schedule. Milestones 8.1–8.4 had begun at midterm, but with limited progress. The government mapped key players to form a working group (8.1), but it had not created the group (8.2). The government submitted a document with data collection filters for public consultation (8.3). However, the consultation process was limited and did not garner much feedback. As for the development and implementation of the system (8.4), the government published a call for proposals to select a civil society organization to help, but received no candidates to apply for it. The other milestones (8.5–8.7) were not started.

End of term: Limited

Milestones 8.1–8.2 and 8.6 are under development, with limited implementation. The remaining milestones (8.3–8.5 and 8.7) were not started. Therefore, the commitment achieved limited completion.

As stated by the government in the monitoring report, Milestones 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, and 8.7 were not started, and the IRM researcher could not find evidence of completion.

Milestones 8.1 and 8.2 involved mapping key players and establishing the working group. In the midterm report, the government reported this task as complete. However, civil society representatives defined the task as having limited completion. The government has not replied to the IRM research survey, and based on internet searches, no public record of the working group meetings could be found.

Milestone 8.6 involves engagement and mobilization activities to integrate the tasks. The government launched a call for proposals in September 2017 [58] to select and coordinate with the civil society organization that would be devoted to this task. The proposal offered high compensation (600,000 reais), but after three attempts, no successful bidder was selected. [59]

Did It Open Government?

Access to Information: Did Not Change

Civic Participation: Did Not Change

Due to the limited deployment of the commitment, activities associated with the commitment could not be evaluated. Therefore, no change in the status quo can be attributed to the activities carried out during the implementation period.

Carried Forward?

The government did not carry forward this commitment into the new national action plan. No theme directly related to this commitment was included in the top areas open for consultation for the new plan. Considering that the completion of the commitment is limited, it is critical that the government move forward to launch and implement the integrated system. In particular, this requires finding a new partner to deliver the standardized form and inspection report database.