05/28/2024 – 21:13
The National Congress overturned the vetoes by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to the law that restricts the temporary release of prisoners, known as exit. The topic was analyzed this Tuesday afternoon (28), in a joint session of the Chamber and the Senate.
In the law approved by parliamentarians, the granting of the benefit was prohibited for those convicted of heinous and violent crimes, such as rape, homicide and drug trafficking. But Lula had vetoed the section in the same law that prevented prisoners from the semi-open regime, convicted of non-violent crimes, from leaving to visit their families. Until then, prisoners who were in semi-open prison, who had already served one-sixth of their total sentence and with good behavior, could leave the prison for five days to visit their family on holidays, study abroad or participate in resocialization activities.
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With the rejection of the veto by parliamentarians, inmates are prevented from leaving prisons on holidays and commemorative dates, such as Christmas and Mother’s Day, even for those in semi-open conditions.
Departure for studies and work remains permitted. The criteria to be observed for granting are: appropriate behavior in prison; minimum serving of 1/6 of the sentence, if the convict is a first-time offender, and 1/4, if he is a repeat offender; and compatibility of the benefit with the objectives of the sentence.
The section that had been vetoed by Lula will now be enacted.
Senator Sergio Moro (União-PR), author of the amendment that allowed prisoners to leave to study, defended the overturn of the presidential veto. For him, going out for education and work activities is enough for resocialization. The senator classified the veto on the end of public holidays as “a slap in the face to society” and a disservice to the country.
“The semi-open prisoner, today, comes out four to five times a year, on holidays. Many of them do not return, which brings a series of difficulties to the police, who have to go and look for them, compromising the normal work of surveillance and protection of citizens, and what is the worst part: these released prisoners commit new crimes”, Moro said.
With the new law, it became mandatory to carry out a criminological examination so that the prisoner can progress from the closed regime to the semi-open regime, and thus have access to the right to get out. Prisoners who progress from the semi-open to the open regime must be monitored electronically, using electronic ankle bracelets.
According to deputy Chico Alencar (Psol-RJ), of the 835 thousand prisoners in the country, only 182 thousand will be entitled to the benefit of temporary releases. For him, ending this benefit is making the situation in the country’s penitentiaries even more chaotic and depriving inmates of adequate resocialization.
“It means wanting to add chaos to the chaos that is already the Brazilian penitentiary system. It’s cruel, it’s unusually cruel. I find it difficult to understand how those who always propagate the Christian values of fraternity, equality, justice, the search for peace, defend this measure”, he criticized. “Family life is fundamental,” he said.
Other vetoes
Today’s Congress agenda provided for the analysis of 17 vetoes. Among others, parliamentarians maintained the vetoes to the Defense of the Democratic Rule of Law Lawmade in 2021 by then president Jair Bolsonaro.
In September 2021, former president vetoed five devices of the project that revoked the old National Security Law, created in 1983, establishing the new Law 14,197/2021including articles that provided for punishment for acts of “mass misleading communication”, the so-called fake news, and for anyone who prevented “the free and peaceful exercise of demonstration”. Bolsonaro also vetoed the increase in penalties for crimes against the Democratic Rule of Law, including an increase in penalties for military personnel who attacked democracy.
With the maintenance of vetoes by parliamentarians, punishments for these cases cannot be applied.
In an agreement between government supporters and opponents, President Lula’s veto was maintained to not adopt a fine for late payment of the new insurance for victims of traffic accidents. In justifying the veto, the burden was considered excessive for a service considered to be of a social nature.
Sanctioned on May 16, Complementary Law 207/2024 created the Mandatory Insurance for the Protection of Victims of Traffic Accidents (SPVAT), which must be charged annually to car and motorcycle owners, to pay compensation for death; permanent, total or partial disability; and reimbursement of medical, funeral and professional rehabilitation expenses not covered by the Unified Health System (SUS).
Caixa Econômica Federal is the fund administrator for these resources. A fee will be mandatory from 2025 and the government’s expectation is that the amount to be charged will be between R$50 and R$60.
With the new law, the list of expenses covered by insurance now includes medical and supplementary assistance, such as physiotherapy, medicines, orthopedic equipment, orthotics and prosthetics. Funeral services and professional rehabilitation expenses for victims who become partially disabled will also be paid.
*With information from Agência Senado
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