DETENTION CENTERS VISITED FOR THIS REPORT

Casa da Adolescente, Rondônia
The Casa da Adolescente is the girls' detention center in the state of Rondônia. It housed five girls at the time of Human Rights Watch's visit. The center does not provide schooling to girls in detention. When we asked if any of the girls in the center was attending classes in the community, a staff member replied, "No. That's only if the judge determines that we can integrate the girl into a [community] school."⁵⁵ There were no recreational activities on the day of our visit, and there appeared to be no space inside or outside the center that could be used for such activities. Girls in the center were locked in their rooms throughout our visit, with little to do other than sleep or stare out the window. Staff members identified one of the girls in the center as mentally impaired. Staff told Human Rights Watch that this girl was not a detainee; instead, in violation of international standards, she was living in the facility because she had no other place to go.⁵⁶

Casa do Adolescente, Rondônia
This facility, the boys' detention center for the state of Rondônia, held twenty-five youths in two small dormitories and two punishment cells. A new wing under construction will increase the facility's capacity once it is completed. But the staff's practice of setting aside one of the two dormitories for a privileged group of four or five youths meant that at the time of our visit, most youths were confined together in exceptionally close quarters. Boys in the two punishment cells were housed in particularly squalid conditions. Many of those we interviewed told us that they were not receiving an education. Detention center officials claimed that youths spent at least two hours outside of their cells each day, but we spoke with boys who told us that they had been locked in their cells for several days at a time. When we inspected the center's recreational facilities, officials told us that youths played ball outside every afternoon, pointing to a gravel lot littered with construction materials.

Centro Educacional Açucena, Amapá
Açucena is a nonresidential facility that supervises youths sentenced to probation (libertade assistida). In contrast to youths in detention or held in "semiliberty," children on probation remain in their homes. They meet with social workers from the center and may attend programs at the center. A total of forty-two children-thirty boys and twelve girls-were serving sentences of probation under the center's supervision at the time of our visit.⁵⁷

Centro Educacional Aninga, Amapá
The Centro Educational Aninga (Aninga Educational Center) is the detention center for children and youths, both girls and boys, between the ages of twelve and twenty-one in the state of Amapá. In marked contrast to the other detention centers Human Rights Watch visited, the classrooms in Aninga were clean and bright, with educational posters and bulletin boards decorating the walls. At the time of Human Rights Watch's visit to Amapá in April 2002, the center was briefly closed for repairs after portions of one of its walls collapsed during heavy rains, but Human Rights Watch was able to interview youths from the facility, temporarily housed in police lockups and in the pretrial detention center during this time. Girls noted that they were allowed to spend less time in the common areas than the boys, presumably because of the need to separate boys and girls. Boys "had more attention and more freedom," one girl told Human Rights Watch.⁵⁸

Centro de Internação de Adolescentes Feminino (CIAF), Pará
The girls' detention center in the state of Pará held eight girls at the time of Human Rights Watch's visit in April 2002. Two were completing sentences of "semiliberty"; six were in pretrial detention. Detention center staff told us that the two girls held in "semiliberty" attended school and spent weekends with their families, but Human Rights Watch heard frequent complaints that girls held in pretrial detention in CIAF had little to do.

Centro de Internação Espaço Recomeço (EREC), Pará
The Espaço Recomeço detention center is the largest boys' detention center in the state of Pará. On the day of our first visit, it held thirty-eight boys between the ages of fifteen and twenty. The detention center held youths in three cellblocks, usually with two to four detainees in each cell, although one block had single cells. In two of the cellblocks, cells were arranged in rows along corridors, with barred windows along the corridors allowing some access to light and fresh air. Cells in the third block faced an open courtyard. There was one punishment cell in the administration block, which held six youth on the day of our first visit. Youths were also held in single or double punishment cells in the annex, a wing of the adjacent pretrial detention center. Cells in the annex were arranged in a row along an open-air corridor. The center had two classrooms. One was empty; the other had a small number of chairs and a bookcase with a dusty pile of haphazardly stacked instructional materials. There was a volleyball court on the grounds, and we observed youths using it during each of our two unannounced visits to the center.

Centro de Internação de Adolescentes Masculino (CIAM), Pará
The boys' pretrial detention center held twenty youths on the day of Human Rights Watch's visit. The regular cells held between one and three youths, each of whom slept on a thin mattress placed on a concrete bed. The cells are arranged in rows along open-air corridors, allowing some ventilation and access to light. We observed newspapers, books, games, and other personal possessions in many of the cells, which were generally clean. The protective custody cell was a notable exception. In that cell, a mattress lay on the floor lit by a bare lightbulb dangling from exposed wires against a dingy wall scarred with graffiti. There was a concrete basketball court at the back of the center, although we did not observe youths using it on the day of our visit.

Centro de Internação Provisória, Amapá
The Centro de Internação Provisória, the pretrial detention center for the state of Amapá, is located behind a specialized police station for youthful offenders. The boys' cells are fronted with metal bars and arranged along a dark, dirty row with windows at either end, their only access to natural light. Girls were housed in a separate part of the facility in one of two large dormitories. The detention center held six girls and twenty boys on the date of Human Rights Watch's visit. Most children spent no more than forty-five days in pretrial detention, as required by Brazil's Statute of the Child and the Adolescent. Nevertheless, we heard of some cases in which the judge ordered the period of pretrial detention extended for another forty-five days, in violation of Brazilian law.⁵⁹

Centro de Internação Provisória, Marahão
This facility, the boys' pretrial detention center, held fifteen youths on the day of Human Rights Watch's visit. Formerly used as the facility for Esperança Youth Center, the center houses youths in cells that open onto a dimly lit corridor. A state official acknowledged that the infrastructure was in poor repair and unsuitable for children, saying, "It's a question of resources." She told us that the state was hoping to build a new facility similar to the layout of the Esperança Youth Center.⁶⁰

Centro Juvenil Masculino (CJM), Pará
The newest of Pará's five juvenile detention centers, this facility held eleven boys between the ages of fourteen and nineteen on the day of Human Rights Watch's visit. Youths shared double rooms that were arranged around a central open courtyard holding a table tennis table. The rooms themselves were furnished with beds and dressers, and each room had its own bathroom. The small number of youths, the cleanliness of the facility, and its physical layout were all positive features of this center.

Centro Semilibertade, Amapá
Amapá's Centro Semilibertade held twenty-eight boys between the ages of fifteen and twenty. (Youths may be held in juvenile detention facilities in Brazil up to the age of twenty-one.) The center's staff reported that the majority were nineteen or twenty years of age and usually came to the center after initially serving six months in the Aninga detention center. Youths sentenced to "semiliberty" sleep in the center but are allowed to leave the facility during the day; the majority worked outside the center for four hours each day. They are also allowed to spend weekends with their families.⁶¹

Centro Sócio-Educativo Assistente Social Dagmar Feitoza, Amazônas
Formerly known as the Complexo de Atendimento ao Adolescente Infrator, this center is one of two facilities for boys who have been sentenced to periods of detention. It was designed for seventy youths and had a population of sixty-five on the day of Human Rights Watch's visit. Youths are held in three cellblocks, each with cells arranged along a closed corridor. One of the cellblocks, Unit Zero, is used for incoming youths; staff told us that youths spent fifteen days in this block before being assigned to one of the other cellblocks on the basis of their crime, age, and physical development. The center's staff was particularly proud of its numerous vocational activities, which included furniture making, basket weaving, and a bakery.

Centro Sócio-Educativo Marise Mendes, Amazônas
The Marise Mendes detention center held twenty-four girls at the time of Human Rights Watch's visit in April 2002. With only two dormitories, the facility housed girls in crowded conditions that frequently led to conflicts. In response, the staff often resorted to placing girls in one of several windowless punishment cells when they could not get along with others in the dormitories. The center had a classroom, which was in use during our visit, but it had no outdoor recreation areas. "The infrastructure, the way it is, makes it difficult for us to do our work," the center's director told Human Rights Watch.⁶²

Centro Sócio-Educativo Masculino (CESEM), Pará
As with the Centro Juvenil Masculino, this facility held youths in rooms furnished with beds and dressers. It held eleven boys between the ages of fourteen and eighteen on the day of our visit. Most of the youths had spent time in the Espaço Recomeço detention center before transferring to CESEM. This facility had the most liberal visitation policies of the five detention centers in Pará, allowing most youths to spend every other weekend with their families. In addition, family members may visit youths in the facility for up to four hours every Saturday and Sunday.

Centro Sócio-Educativo Senador Raimundo Parente, Amazônas
Designed to hold forty youths, this center had a population of thirty on the day of Human Rights Watch's visit. The center houses boys between the ages of twelve and sixteen; older boys are held in the Dagmar Feitoza detention center. Detention center officials told us that the facility had been substantially renovated in response to criticism from Amnesty International;⁶³ a bulletin board in the administrative offices documented the renovation. The center had no education at the time of our visit, although officials told us that they expected to begin classes shortly. "What we most need here is schooling," Orlando S. told Human Rights Watch.⁶⁴

Esperança Youth Center (Centro de Juventude Esperança), Maranhão
This center held fifty-two boys on the day of Human Rights Watch's visit. Constructed less than two years ago, the center was generally clean and in good repair. Cells in two of the three wings were arranged in an L-shape to face open courtyards, allowing youths in those cells ample access to light and ventilation. The third set of cells was also laid out in an L-shape, but the layout of the cells was reversed so that the doors of each cell opened onto a corridor with limited lighting and ventilation. Detention center officials told us that they did not know why the third wing was built differently from the other two. The center used the third wing to house youths who had entered the facility most recently.

Unidade de Internação Provisório, Amazônas
Amaônas's pretrial detention unit held five boys on the day of our visit. It offered no classes for the youths, who spent up to forty-five days in pretrial detention. The most common complaint from youths here and in other detention centers in the state did not relate to conditions in this facility: Nearly every boy and girl we spoke with in the state of Amazônas told us that he or she had been hit by police officers while in a local police station awaiting transfer to the pretrial detention unit. "They beat you to make you talk," Maurício B. said of the police.⁶⁵

55 Human Rights Watch interview, staff, Casa da Adolescente, Porto Velho, Rondônia, April 25, 2002.

56 See Chapter VIII, "Children with Mental Illnesses" section.

57 Human Rights Watch interview, staff, Centro Educacional Açucena, Santana, Amapá, April 16, 2002. See also Governo do Estado do Amapá, Fundação da Criança e do Adolescente, Política de Ação (Macapá, Amapá: FCRIA, 2001), pp. 59-66.

58 Human Rights Watch interview with Patrícia D., Santana, Amapá, April 16, 2002.

59 See Chapter III, "Statute of the Child and Adolescent" section.

60 Human Rights Watch interview, Centro de Internação Provisória, São Luís, Maranhão, April 19, 2002.

61 Human Rights Watch interview with staff, Casa de Semilibertade, Macapá, Amapá, April 15, 2002. See also Governo do Estado do Amapá, Fundação da Criança e do Adolescente, Política de Ação, pp. 67-75.

62 Human Rights Watch interview with Francisca Auziva Ataidi Elgaly, director, Centro Sócio-Educativo Marise Mendes, Manaus, Amazônas, April 22, 2002.

63 See, for example, Amnesty International, Brazil: A Waste of Lives: FEBEM Juvenile Detention Centers, São Paulo-A Human Rights Crisis, Not a Public Security Issue (London: Amnesty International, 2000), pp. 3-4 (recounting the findings of a visit to the Raimundo Parente detention center).

64 Human Rights Watch interview, Centro Sócio-Educativo Senador Raimundo Parente, Manaus, Amazônas, April 23, 2002.

65 Human Rights Watch interviews, Unidade de Internação Provisória, Manaus, Amazônas, April 23, 2002.