Democracy, Human Rights and Prison Conditions in South America

This report was developed with the contribution of the Center for Citizen Security Studies (Centro de Estudios de Seguridad Ciudadana – CESC) of University of Chile, and of the Center for Legal and Social Studies (Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales – CELS) of Argentina. Each one of these institutions prepared a partial report about your own country that was adapted to preparing the final report, under co-ordination of Center for the Study of Violence (Núcleo de Estudos da Violência – NEV) of University of São Paulo.

The objective of the research presented in this paper is to describe and analyze the conditions in the prison system in three countries in South America – namely Brazil, Chile, and Argentina – and those social, political, and institutional aspects that contribute to gross human rights violations caused to the individuals in the places used for detention, even it been constitutionally institutionalized democracies.

The paradox of violation of human rights within democratic States in addition to the complexity of prison’s functions in the contemporary world provoke a deep debate which the present paper hope to be a first contribution resulting from the CESC, CELS and NEV partnership.