BBC Saturday, 14 April, 2001, 00:02 GMT 01:02 UK

Siege at Brazilian jail

Conditions in Brazil's jails are appalling By Tom Gibb in Sao Paulo

Inmates have taken over a prison in western Brazil, taking 120 hostages, including some 50 children, according to the Brazilian police.

The inmates are demanding dismissal of the warden, whom they accuse of ill-treatment and corruption, as well as a judicial review of their cases.

The rebellion started the day after a report by the United Nations concluded that ill-treatment and torture by the Brazilian police were widespread and systematic.

Police say the inmates of the Carumbe prison, in the province of Mato Grosso, took visiting family members as well as some of the guards hostage during visiting hours on Thursday.

Local television is reporting that many of the family members stayed of their own free will to prevent the police from violently storming the prison.

There have been numerous riots in recent years

The police are negotiating. They say the rebellion was organised by the First Commando of the Capital, the same group which organised simultaneous uprisings in 29 Sao Paulo jails in February.

Part of the chronic overcrowding in Brazil's jails is because many prisoners remain locked up even after serving their sentences because they have no lawyer to file for their release.

In Carumbe prison, 368 inmates are crammed into cells designed to hold 200.

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2001

Answers

No lawyer to file for their release? That doesn't make sense.

Times up, kick em out! then they can arrest them for vagrancy the next day.

-- Anonymous, April 14, 2001

I dunno about Brazil but in Mexico you have to have papers for anything important. It's a long story, but the only way I avoided a possible kidnapping was to show my (then) impressive British passport with all the elaborate gold tooling on navy and amazing pages with typescript, engraving and pastel coloration from Victorian times. In my pigeon Spanish, I indicated I was from the Embassy and they would all be shot at dawn if they didn't let me go. The sight of the fancy document caused an almost visible recoil. (Note to adventurous types: do not attempt to visit Mexico alone, especially if you are of the female persuasion.)

The fact that you can't afford a lawyer means nothing--it's the papers that are important!

I've heard of people who have notaries make up fancy-looking documents with gold seals and ribbons and stuff to help them out of any possible difficulty south of the border.

-- Anonymous, April 14, 2001