some recuperandos (“recovering persons”) clean the São João-del-Rei APAC prisons in eastern Brazil WHEN GRAZIELA MARIANO'S former partner found out that she was in a relationship with someone else He didn’t accept the breakup,” the 34-year-old Brazilian said Investigators eventually traced his death back to her Mariano is waiting for her final sentence behind bars in the eastern city of São João del-Rei run by the Brazilian nonprofit Association for Protection and Assistance of Convicts (APAC) But we’re not handcuffed and there are no weapons,” Mariano said In the 68 facilities that the nonprofit manages across Brazil APAC implements a model in which inmates run aspects of the prison themselves Referred to as recuperandos (“recovering persons”) prisoners are called by their name rather than by a number works at night distributing medicine to fellow prisoners a psychologist who offers support to the more than 400 inmates at APAC in São João del-Rei “APAC is essentially about offering dignity to inmates The idea is to save the person’s identity to boost their self-esteem.” Created by a group of Brazilian Catholics in the early 1970s the acronym originally stood for Amando o Próximo Christianity remains at the heart of the nonprofit’s philosophy “God is the source of everything,” reads the final guiding principle of APAC’s decalogue Each section of an APAC prison has a prayer room with Bibles and a cross where inmates are encouraged to renew themselves and take time out for reflection when they feel overwhelmed Mariano was delighted to move to the APAC facility eight months ago She spent more than a year in a traditional prison: “I was pepper-sprayed and guards were very cruel.” Not once was she permitted to see her three children family ties are part of a prisoner’s rehabilitation Eléonore Hughes is a Franco-British journalist living in Rio de Janeiro.  Got something to say about what you're reading The Association for the Protection and Assistance of the Convicted (APAC) offers vocational training to help prisoners reintegrate into society pictured here in São João del Rei prison on 26 April 2023 Vanessa Dos Passos gets up just before 6am every morning She has breakfast at 6:15am and starts her day’s work as a caretaker at 7:15am on the dot The thirty-something spends her day patiently unlocking doors for visitors and writing down their names one by one in her large register Her shift ends at 7:15pm when the night guard takes over This may sound like an ordinary job and an ordinary life but there’s a twist: Vanessa works in the detention centre where she is serving an 18-year prison sentence At the Association for the Protection and Assistance of the Convicted (APAC) of São João del Rei in the eastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais Only a handful of employees take care of administrative duties and assist the inmates in charge of security subsidised to a large extent by public funds relies heavily on the trust placed in its male and female inmates – imprisoned for drug trafficking homicide and rape – and prepares them for their reintegration into working life “All I knew about life before was that I wanted to commit crimes Because here I’m treated with love,” she says I committed a crime in society and I have to pay for that crime The concept behind this seemingly utopian approach, developed by a group of Catholics in 1972, is to humanise prisoners. “When prisoners are treated with violence, they respond to society with violence. By humanising them, we give them the opportunity to make a change in their lives,” explains Denio Marx of the APAC International Study Centre Members of the association employ the term recuperandos which can be translated as “recoverers” or “people on the road to recovery” inspect their own cells and mediate their own conflicts 68 such detention centres have opened throughout the country The APAC methodology applied in each of these detention centres is based on two pillars: religion and education in the large common room of the closed male section daily religious services are followed by a variety of courses "Why is it important for all of you to read and understand well?” asks Raquel de Oliveira Fragoso interrupting the din at the back of the class aimed at those who have already completed their primary and secondary education enables recuperandos to reduce their sentences by reading books “It improves our writing skills?” one of them asks “You read texts written by lawyers and judges,” explains the head of the educational programme That’s why it’s so important to practise reading and looking for information in a text.” Schooling up to the completion of secondary education is compulsory here but some recuperandos (51 out of 400) even go on to higher education there are courses designed to help prisoners find work Gender stereotypes determine the distribution of activities: cookery animal husbandry and steelmaking for the men While a cacophony of hairdryers can be heard emanating from the women’s building on this Wednesday evening on the other side of the courtyard overlooking this hilly region dotted with colonial-era villages didn’t know how to bake bread before arriving here “APAC has given me the tools to get back into life with a trade and avoid having to do bad things when I get out,” he says I saw people receive rotten food and if they gave it back they had nothing to eat The prisoners take a lot of medication to drug themselves It’s chaos,” describes Graziela Cristina Marano who spent just over a year in a normal Brazilian prison “I’ve seen what human beings are capable of doing to their fellow human beings,” Alisson says coldly as he glances towards the common system building violent attacks on businesses and public buildings were ordered from a prison in the state of Rio Grande do Norte in protest of prison conditions “It’s hard to imagine anything worse than the Brazilian prison system,” says lawyer Fernanda Prates who is also a law professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation a higher education institute and think tank based in Rio de Janeiro “The simple fact that people don’t have to go through this in the APACs is wonderful But this minimum of dignity should be provided by the state regardless of religious or spiritual paths.” the religious component of the APACs is the subject of much criticism national law guarantees spiritual assistance in detention “If the state is the only one with the legitimacy to impose punishment it must also be responsible for the way in which this deprivation of liberty is applied,” adds Prates The other criticism levelled at APACs is based on the perception of crime “The APACs focus on personal transformation and characterise crime as the result of individual pathologies This approach fails to take into account the systemic nature and social context of such acts,” says Prates “Almost everyone in my family has been arrested,” exclaims an emphatic Vanessa Dos Passos sitting at her desk in the small entrance hall of the women’s APAC Her two brothers and her husband are also behind bars I went to live with my grandmother,” she continues There are thousands of stories like hers in Brazil’s prison system the discourse of individual guilt promoted by APAC provides a vision that “legitimises the prison system” many of the prisoners in Brazil’s overcrowded prisons have no place being there “You can’t think about the prison system without thinking about rehabilitation Prates is particularly critical of the situation faced by prisoners who await trial. The National Council of Justice (CNJ) counts 909,061 prisoners (as of 30 September 2022) 44.5 per cent of whom are in pre-trial detention The latter make up a minority of APAC recuperandos who has been awaiting trial for two years in São João del Rei for the murder of her violent husband claims that she acted in self-defence: “He came to kill me,” says the mother of three Her memories of life before prison or displayed on her Mickey Mouse t-shirt topped by the inscription: “Mum of João Lucas aged 3.” “I can be acquitted tomorrow and the time I’ve lost with my children all of this time I’ve spent in prison I will never get back,” she says Equal Times is a trilingual news and opinion website focusing on labour politics and the economy from a social justice perspective Brazil - October 2020 - On 24 October in the parish of "St John Bosco" the parish priest Fr Roberto Modesto Carneiro presided over the Eucharistic celebration with which the Association of Mary Help of Christians was officially established (ADMA ) in São João del Rei ANS - “Agenzia iNfo Salesiana” is a on-line almost daily publication the communication agency of the Salesian Congregation enrolled in the Press Register of the Tibunal of Rome as n 153/2007 This site also uses third-party cookies to improve user experience and for statistical purposes By scrolling through this page or by clicking on any of its elements Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker