Brazil prison conditions fuel gang crisis

Back in January 2017, Brazil experienced a wave of massive and grisly prison riots. More than 130 inmates were killed in a few weeks in fighting between rival gangs. Many of the of the dead were decapitated or mutilated, and pictures of their bodies were posted on the internet by other inmates.

Now, two other deadly riots in the first few weeks of 2018 are raising fears of more mass-killings in Brazilian prisons. In many cases, the prisons have been all but abandoned by prison guards and are operated as virtually independent fiefs of gangs that have morphed from prisoner rights' organizations into sophisticated criminal groups. 

On this edition of Global Journalist, we look at why Brazil's prison system is so violent and how its mismanagement is undermining Brazil's politics and governance.

Joining the program:

• César Muñoz, a senior Brazil researcher for Human Rights Watch
• Brad Brooks, chief correspondent in Brazil for Reuters
• Sacha Darke, a senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Westminster
• Mike LaSusa, senior Brazil researcher for Insight Crime

Producers: Rayna Sims and Lauren Wortman with assistance from Edom Kassaye
Visual editor: Jiwon Choi