The number of prisoners in Brazil is rising rapidly and there is widespread agreement that the current criminal justice and penal system is dysfunctional. It has been the subject of numerous expert reports denouncing its failings and there have also been ad hoc attempts to deal with different aspects of its problems. The system also violates Brazil’s own laws and constitutional provisions for the protection of human rights. This work, one of two stories shot for Open Society Institute about pretrial detention, looks at the stories of two mothers, Indaia Maria Mendes and Deize Silva de Carvalho, whose young sons were tortured and killed in detention centers in Rio de Janeiro while awaiting trials.



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