The prison population in Brazil has grown by almost 900% since 1990, reaching approximately 941,752 people in the first half of 2025, according to the latest data from the National Secretariat for Penal Policy (SENAPPEN). For decades, the Brazilian prison system has faced overcrowding, structural instability, and difficulties in providing basic rights to people deprived of their liberty.
To understand the reality of the prison system, we need to consider two key points: prison infrastructure and who is the population in the prison system.
Data from the Geopresídios platform, run by the CNJ (National Council of Justice), shows that there is a total of 483,000 places for 726,000 inmates, with a surplus of 242,000 people deprived of their liberty. Brazil currently has the third largest prison population in the world, behind only the United States and China.
The issue of pretrial detention is one of the main reasons why prisons are overcrowded. This practice involves the detention of a person prior to a final conviction by a court of law. According to data from Senappen from 2024, almost 30% of people incarcerated in Brazil were in pretrial detention, with 183,000 awaiting trials.
According to Senappen data, the most common crimes are drug dealing, which is prevalent, followed by aggravated and simple theft and aggravated and simple homicide.
In addition to overcrowding, Brazil’s social and racial issues highlight the weaknesses of the system. In Brazil most people deprived of their liberty are young men who identify themselves as brown or black, aged between 18 and 29, with low levels of education and limited participation in the labor market. These people belong to socially vulnerable groups, which shows a direct relationship between social inequality and incarceration.
The ideal of punishment
The Brazilian prison system is heavily influenced by the idea of punishment associated with suffering. The association between punishment and suffering in Brazilian prisons has historical roots in the colonial and imperial periods; influenced by European prison models, physical punishment and degrading conditions were part of the sentences.
Prison often fails to fulfill its role of holding individuals accountable for the crimes they have committed and is instead socially understood as a place of extreme punishment, which is reflected in the conditions offered within prison facilities.
Places with structural problems, lack of adequate medical care, absence of educational and work activities, and unsanitary environments make staying in prisons even more difficult for people inmate, who often lose basic rights provided for in the Constitution in function of being placed in prisons that don’t offer the needed instructure. It is in this environment that violence also becomes a reality, with inmates exposed to police violence and mistreatment, conflicts between inmates, and the activities of criminal factions. Due to violence in the prison system, Brazil’s largest criminal gang, the First Capital Command (PCC), was formed in the state of São Paulo following the Carandiru Massacre.
Rehabilitation: the path that is (not) taken
The reintegration of individuals into society after they have committed a crime and served their sentence is a necessary step toward public safety, but one that remains underdeveloped in Brazil. The goal of rehabilitation is to bring individuals with criminal records back into society, ensuring—in a dignified and lawful manner—new opportunities that can prevent further criminal acts.
In 2008, the recidivism rate reached 70%, according to the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) on the Prison System, a survey conducted by the Chamber of Deputies at the time. By 2019, the National Council of Justice (CNJ) published a report indicating a recidivism rate of 42.5% within the prison system. Although there has been a decrease, it is still evident that challenges remain for the social reintegration of the prison population.
There are various institutional and individual difficulties that need to be overcome, particularly regarding access to education, employment, the rebuilding of social ties, and the stigma carried by those released from the criminal justice system.
The individual who finds himself free from behind bars opens his eyes to a world marked by rejection. Many, lacking formal education, find themselves seeking jobs under precarious conditions and often encounter closed doors in the labor market. Without social and emotional support and without means of subsistence, returning to crime can become tempting and, often, the only way out.
Even though there are public policies aimed at rehabilitation, without real effectiveness, the prison system can become a constant point of return for thousands of people who cannot find a way out of a life of crime.
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The article below was edited by Eloá Costa.
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