COVID-19 in prisons: a study of habeas corpus decisions by the São Paulo Court of Justice

Abstract

Brazil has become the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Global South-a pandemic that disproportionately affects vulnerable populations, especially those detained and imprisoned. Legal institutions are struggling to respond. In this paper, we focus on the National Council of Justice’s Recommendation 62, issued March 17, 2020, which recommends that judges take several measures to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection in prisons. We test this recommendation’s impact by looking at habeas corpus decisions in the São Paulo Court of Justice. The exploratory findings presented here indicate that Recommendation 62 has little impact on habeas decisions. In general, citing the recommendation does not lead the Court to grant early release or house arrest to those detained, and most habeas actions are decided against petitioners. This is true even when petitioners claim to be part of a risk group, or their alleged offense did not involve violence or serious threat-factors that should favor habeas relief under Recommendation 62.

The relevancy of massive health education in the Brazilian prison system: The course “health care for people deprived of freedom” and its impacts

“…Table 2 shows that this phenomenon occurred in all country regions except the Southeast region, where a drop was reported in 2020. In this instance, it could be explained by the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Supreme Court of Brazil authorized the temporary release of imprisoned persons in high-risk groups, releasing ~30,000 people ( 42 ). Finally, the Southeast Region holds the largest prison population, with ~46% of imprisoned people (see Table 2 ).…”