Institute for Defense of the Right to Defense – IDDD

Reducing the abusive use of provisional detainment in São Paulo. The institute will offer pro-bono legal assistance in provisional detainment centers, search for recent data on the issue in the capital of São Paulo; along with working toward greater sensitivity among government agents in order to foster a more efficient policy of alternatives to provisional detainment.

•  A mutual support effort inside Belém Provisional Detainment Centers I and II where overcrowding has been registered by the Secretary of Penitentiary Administration (SAP) of the State of São Paulo;
• Construction of a quantitative data set of accompaniment that looks at the cautionary measure applied as well as relative information on the quality and effectiveness of the legal support offered by lawyers associated with the IDDD;
•  Advocacy with the Judiciary, Public Prosecutor’s Office and São Paulo executive government to foster sensitivity to the consequences of the abusive use of provisional detainment, with the construction of an effective policy for the application of alternative sentences other than imprisonment.

The problem of the abusive use of provisional detainment in Brazil isn’t new. Data provided by the Ministry of Justice in 2012 showed that the country has 548,000 prisoners, of which more than a third (195,000) were provisional detainees, placing Brazil in fourth place among the countries with the most prisoners in the world, behind only the United States, China and Russia. The policy of mass-incarceration in place for decades now in Brazil affects most forcefully the poorest and most marginalized segments of society. Recent research by the IDDD (2014) shows that 74% of prisoners interviewed by the Institute were between 18 and 34 years old, 84% had an income of less than three times the minimum wage, 63% had only a grade school education at the most and 59% were self-declared blacks or mixed-race. Other research by organizations from the Criminal Justice Network (www.redejusticacriminal.org) have shown similar results.

The IDDD is a public interest, civil society organization founded in July, 2000 that works to strengthen the right to defense. Its mission is to foment in society and in State institutions the idea that all persons have the right to a quality legal defense, the observation of the presumption of innocence, full access to the Justice system, a fair trial and the service of the imposed sentence in a dignified manner. And this, independent of social class, guilt or innocence, or the crime of which they are accused.

Former Ministers of Justice José Carlos Dias and Márcio Thomaz Bastos are members of the Institute’s Governing Council.

Public Defender of the State of São Paulo.

A mutual support effort was carried out inside Guarulhos Provisional Detainment Center I, with personal attendance for provisional detainees and later free legal assistance to obtain provisional release. The team interviewed people caught red-handed in Guarulhos CDP I to gather information about their lives and the circumstances of their arrest. This information was forwarded to lawyers associated with the institute who participated in the project on a voluntary basis and provided legal assistance. A quantitative data set of accompaniment was constructed that looks at the cautionary measure applied, its effectiveness and its proportionality in relation to the sentence, as well as information on the legal support that was given. The advocacy with the Judiciary, the Public Ministry and the São Paulo government sought to raise awareness about the consequences of the abusive use of provisional detention, with the construction of an effective enforcement policy regarding alternative cautionary measures, instead of imprisonment, in cases where full freedom is inadmissible.

Report “Freedom in Focus” (Portuguese).