Brazil to Spend Billions on Prison, Crime Plan

BRASILIA, Brazil — President Lula da Silva will invest more than $3 billion in prison construction and social programs during the next five years to tackle spiraling crime and violence.

The Justice Ministry’s new national security plan will take a multi-pronged approach to the problems of poverty, crime, violence, prison overcrowding and police corruption by combining fundamental social development and prison education programs, community policing and anti-corruption initiatives, and comprehensive prison construction and improvement plans, officials say.

Brazil has the fourth-highest murder rate in the world with about 45,000 homicides per year, according to the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture. The goal is to cut the country’s homicide rate from 29 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants to approximately 11 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, officials say, with the Justice Ministry releasing almost $250 million this year to jumpstart the plan.

With more than a dozen government agencies, state-level committees, international agencies and local NGOs involved in administering and executing the plan, the remaining $3 billion in funding will be appropriated from the treasury and spread over five years, officials say.

Almost 500,000 youths would receive job training and financial assistance under the initiative, while the plan offers significant scholarship stipends to police officers for education and specialized career-training programs.

In addition to the expansion of social and education programs, the plan also recognizes the chronic overcrowding, poor conditions and gang problems that plague the Brazilian prison system.

The new initiative calls for the construction of up to 160 prisons, each designed to house about 400 inmates. Extra funding will also be used to enhance educational programs and extend opportunities to more of the country’s 420,000 inmates.

The plan, which features five distinct components, identifies about a dozen, mostly urban areas throughout the country where efforts to reduce violence and crime will be focused. Heading the priority list is the city of Victoria, the capital of the state of Espiritu Santo, which has a population of about 3 million people and lies just north of Rio de Janeiro .

Brazil ‘s most violent urban area, Victoria , has more than 78 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, which is four times the rate found in the most violent cities in the United States .

With a homicide rate just shy of Victoria’s, the city of Recife, which has a population of more than 3.5 million inhabitants, is ranked as the second most violent area in the country. The capital of Pernambuco in northeast Brazil , Recife is the second largest metropolitan area in the country.

Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ‘s largest metropolitan areas with populations of 11 million and 12 million inhabitants respectively, place only fifth and seventh on the Justice Ministry’s security action plan.