Amid Rioting, Youths Escape Brazil Detention

Hundreds of juvenile offenders may have escaped from a detention center in Brazil’s financial capital of Sao Paulo in the past three days amid a prison riot, police said Tuesday.

“There have been escapes on Saturday, Sunday and even Monday night. Top Sao Paulo police commanders are now in the Tatuape prison trying to count how many have actually made off and assess the damage,” a police spokeswoman said.

“There are no official figures so far,” she said, adding that the situation inside the prison, home to about 1,500 underage offenders, is now under control.

Police said they had no way to tell yet if any of the escaped inmates were dangerous. And the numbers themselves were unclear.

Local news agency Agencia Estado quoted police as saying they had caught about 80 escapees out of a total of about 200 who had fled.

But it also quoted the Foundation for Minors’ Well-Being, which runs the jail, as saying about 450 had escaped, which would be a record number.

Brazil’s last big jailbreak set a record as about 345 men escaped Sao Paulo’s Putim jail last month, with police recapturing only 151 inmates.

The Tatuape riots started Saturday as prisoners protested their treatment.

Television footage Tuesday showed hundreds of teenage prisoners rattling fences and setting cars in the jail courtyard ablaze and showed some running into the adjoining slum neighborhood.

Agencia Estado quoted 18-year-old Waldemir Pereira dos Santos, who was freed last week after spending more than a year in Tatuape, as complaining of violence by jailers.

“I know how they ill-treat them inside. When you keep calm, they only beat you more,” he said.

Amnesty International has condemned Brazil’s prison system as “one of the very worst in the Americas,” saying torture and violence were widespread and that most jails were severely overcrowded.

Armed inmates often stage rebellions, killing other prisoners and taking jailers hostage as part of escape bids or to demand better conditions.

The authorities’ response can be equally violent. Police gunned down 111 prisoners during a riot at Sao Paulo’s Carandiru prison in 1992.