Between October 29 and 30 of this year, the General Inspectorate of Justice carried out an inspection at the Osvaldo Florentino Leite Ferreira Penitentiary, known as Ferrugem Penitentiary, located in Sinop (MT). The inspection highlighted that this unit was the scene of torture sessions systematically carried out by prison officers against detainees.
The report, prepared by members of the Control and Inspection Group of the Prison and Socio-Educational System (GMF), of the Court of Justice of Mato Grosso (TJMT), describes serious situations of human rights violations.
Footage obtained by the column reinforces the allegations and shows officers from the unit acting in groups to physically attack prisoners and subject them to torture.
“The guards are forced to sit, shirtless and without flip-flops, with their legs bent and their hands behind their necks – sometimes just in their underwear or completely naked – while the criminal police officers enter the neighborhoods, under insults, humiliation and violence,” states an extract from the report.
The videos
In one of the recordings, a criminal officer uses pepper spray as a form of punishment. The officer rubs the substance on the inmate’s face and, at another point, uses his hands to spread it directly into the inmate’s eyes.
Rubber bullets and dogs were also reportedly used as instruments of torture. In some images, the animals are positioned in front of the inmates, barking aggressively, while the inmates try to protect themselves with their arms.
One of the guards interviewed by professionals had a deep bite on his buttocks. Another detainee had bite marks on one of his hands, signs consistent with the use of dogs during the reported acts.
The interviews
During the inspection, teams interviewed 126 detainees. Among them, 48 had scars or recent injuries caused by rubber bullets.
Inspectors also located, inside the cells, rubber ammunition caps and a pre-detonated grenade, allegedly having a morale effect, reinforcing allegations of excessive use of force within the prison unit.
In addition to the allegations of physical and psychological violence, the inspection revealed the omission in the health care of the detainees.
According to reports collected by the team, the unit’s infirmary is practically inaccessible and, when assistance is provided, it is limited, in most cases, to the indiscriminate distribution of painkillers, without any adequate clinical assessment.
The document concludes that there is, in the prison, the consolidation of a parallel power aimed at the exercise of “its own justice”, in direct opposition to the Court of Justice, the Surveillance and Inspection Group (GMF) and other control bodies of the prison system.
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