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Anbal Bruno Prison has been under international scrutiny since August 2011, when the facility started being
monitored by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Since then, the coalition has documented chronic
abuses, such as the presence of the so-called chaveiros: prisoners who effectively carry out official functions in the
cellblocks, and are granted the authority to maintain order and discipline in the facility, often through the use of
violence. A window onto the crisis of the Brazilian prison system, Anbal Bruno incarcerates more than 7000 men in
space designated for fewer than 1900, with an insufficient number of officers to adequately ensure security. The State
has also been negligent regarding the conditions of human security pertaining to state agents.
The coalition of human rights groups responsible for the case is comprised of the Catholic Prison Ministry (Pastoral
Carcerria), Ecumenical Service of Advocacy in Prisons (Servio Ecumnico de Militncia nas Prises SEMPRI), Global
Justice (Justia Global), and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School.
In February of this year, the coalition released the filings from the international case online in order to bring attention
to the situation of the Anbal Bruno Prison Complexo. For more information, please visit:
http://arquivoanibal.weebly.com.
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