Every year, scores of deaths in custody occur as a result of violence on the part of police and prison officers, denial of medical care, and negligence on the part of the authorities in preventing violence between detainees. The vast majority of these deaths in custody go uninvestigated and undocumented. Prisoners are also at risk of being beaten or tortured by prison officers and police. In a number of notorious cases, military police reacted to a prison disturbance, such as a riot or escape attempt, with excessive force and brutality, shooting prisoners dead, and injuring others. Special police forces sent in to search cells and contain disturbances have created a climate of terror, shooting randomly, beating and humiliating prisoners, and destroying their few possessions.
Torture is widespread in Brazil's police stations.
The civil police routinely resort to torture and ill-treatment as means of extracting confessions. Beatings and intimidation are also employed in prisons and police stations as means of controlling an ever-growing number of detainees. The system itself offers little protection to those prisoners who complain of serious human rights violations. The Brazilian prison system is in crisis. Weekly riots and violent incidents suggest that prisons and police lock-ups are not being effectively administered, and that the authorities are not in full control of these penal establishments.