'Privatizing prison opens up space for crime', says Silvio Almeida when criticizing PPI decree

The Minister of Human Rights and Citizenship, Silvio Almeida, stated this Friday, 2, that the privatization of prison and socio-educational units “opens space for the infiltration of organized crime”. The comment addressed the decree issued in April last year by the vice-president, Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), and the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad (PT), which included prisons and public security in the list of the Partnership and Investment Program (PPI ).

“Privatization of either the prison or the socio-educational system opens up space for infiltration by organized crime, which is the opposite of what we want to do. I'm not saying that this already exists, what I'm saying is that we open space for organized crime to have another little piece of the Brazilian State”, said Almeida at a breakfast with journalists. “It is normal for there to be this type of divergence (with the economic area), but that is my position”, he added.

The minister, however, did not explain how public-private partnerships would facilitate the growth of criminal organizations in the prison system. Almeida attributed the current problems in penitentiaries, including human rights, to the lack of sufficient State in these spaces.

The decree published by the Lula government provides “for incentives for financing infrastructure projects with environmental and social benefits”. This text modified another decree published in October 2016, during the government of former president Michel Temer (MDB), which regulated the priority areas of the PPI.

The public-private partnership policy instituted by the Temer administration placed only the logistics and transport, urban mobility, telecommunications, broadcasting and basic sanitation sectors among those that could receive investment from the private sector.

The Minister of Human Rights stated that the opening of partnerships with the private sector in the area of ​​infrastructure becomes, in practice, “privatization of the execution of the sentence”. Almeida also said that there is a contradiction between this type of measure and other policies of the Lula government. “This can not happen. It cannot happen just from a political point of view, but because it is unconstitutional. This is illegal. This is the debate that has to be had”, he continued.

Almeida had already spoken out on the topic in November last year during an interview with the federal government’s “Fala Ministro” program. On the same occasion, he said he had ordered the Ministry's technical area to produce a study to support possible discussions on the review of the decree published by the government's economic area.

At breakfast with journalists this Friday, Almeida stated that the technical study was completed by the ministry's legal department, but that the results would not be released. He commented that the opinion presents the assessment that “it is a process that should not take place within the administration”. According to the minister, deliberation on this type of topic that causes divergence between areas of government must be done internally. He was also asked if there were conversations with Minister Haddad, but he did not respond.

Almeida, however, said that he will talk to the new Minister of Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski, to integrate human rights policy with the area of ​​public security. The Minister of Human Rights stated that national policy in the area is not handled solely by his Ministry and requires cooperation from other departments.

The minister also said that he intends to discuss the topic with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but that, so far, evaluations on the topics are restricted to the ministry

“That doesn’t work. This opens up space for interests that are not in the public interest to interfere in a place that is extremely problematic, which is the prison and socio-educational system,” she stated. “It’s a contradiction. It cannot exist”, he added.