Fernanda Canofre: Her Insight on Brazilian Jail & What We Don’t Know
Using reporting as an alibi, journalist Fernanda Canofre writes stories about all kinds of people in all types of media in Latin America.
Canofre was born in a crossing land in the Southern part of Brazil. While Canofre travels around all of Latin America, her roots are stationed in Brazil where she started her career with a degree in history. Brazil is divided into 26 states and has a population of 207 people according to One World Nations. Brazil is what Canofre knows best but she takes her journalistic skills all around Latin America.
When Canofre wants to write a story she can choose almost any topic and make a story from it. She doesn’t have a specific news organization she writes for but many of her stories are published on the website Global Voices. One story that stands out from others is her story about a Brazilian jail. Canofre published a story about what jail is like in Brazil and how inmates are handled. It is a story that is, while informative, also very disturbing.
Canofre’s story called What’s It Like to Live in a Brazilian Prison Cell? Cramped, Dirty, and Dangerous to Your Health is a feature story about what really happens in Brazilian jail that we might not know.
“The place is so filthy that your skin breaks out in a rash that will soon worsen into a festering wound,” said Canofre. Diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis spread like epidemics, but if you get really sick, only one type of medicine will be prescribed, no matter your symptoms.”
Brazil has a yearly prison surplus of about 40,000 people and it is continuing to grow. The prison population is ranked fourth in the world trailing behind the United States, China, and Russia. Brazil is a country known for crime and within the 27 states in Brazil, they have more people in prison than they have room for. The horrible treatment that the inmates get is due to a shortage of room available in the prisons. Many of the people that are staying in the jail cells have yet to be admitted; they are just there for a waiting period while they wait for their trial. Brazil is known for jailing young, black, poor men.
“The more you jail, the more you increase in sentencing, the more criminal rates in the country grow alarmingly,” said Father Valdir, president of the Prison Pastoral. “The answers given to us so far to issues of violence have been highly wrong, generating an even greater backlash of violence for Brazilian society.”
In Canofre’s article, she talks about the Brazilian human rights advocacy’s NGOs, who created a campaign to inform all of Brazil about what goes on in prison. It is a video that shows the overcrowded prison cells and what the people look like who are staying there.
“The campaign’s message is that there is little room for social reintegration when a person loses rights and dignity,” said Canofre. “In Brazil, a common saying is that prisons are merely ‘crime schools.’”
One main reason for Brazil’s growing crime rate is the drug law in Brazil. The law says that they decriminalize drug use but do not make it clear when it comes to use and possession. With this being said, this law leaves police officers having to use their best judgment on what to do when someone is caught with drugs, using them or not.
“Today, one in every three prisoners in Brazil is on drug-related charges”, said Canofre.
Canofre’s story about the Brazilian prison has made people in not only Brazil but all around Latin America aware of what is going on with prison rights. She refers to a culture of incarceration, which Canofre describes as “an object of international concern, from the UN Human Rights Council to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States.”
While this is one of Canofre’s heavier stories, she writes stories about all different topics from Brazil and anywhere in Latin America. Canofre enjoys what she does and enjoys listening to people’s stories from all around the country.
