Rights, Freedoms and Repression
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Anti-Empire
Human Rights in IrelandIndymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Lockdown Skeptics
Voltaire NetworkVoltaire, international edition
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Brazil's Prison Fire & Riot - 25 dead![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() & a consideration of the universality of prison issues. 25 prisoners have been reported killed in Brazil's latest prison unrest. They died in a fire which authorities say resulted from gang frictions in the Ponte Nova prison near Minas Gerais in the south west of the state, though other news sources claim the prisoners were in riot & had taken control of the prison at dawn. The prison built for 90 inmates (according to Globo Brazilian media & 70 according to Reuters) held 173 inmates. Many will know of the notoriety of the Brazilian penal system, recalling the Carandiru massacre in 1992 which led to military police killing 111 inmates in the prison of the same name. The current government which counts amongst its highest echelons individuals who served time in Brazilian prisons has been keen to convince onlookers that penal reform is a priority. Accordingly only last Monday the Federal government unveiled plans to build 160 new prisons as part of a wider strategy to stop gang violence. I've been awaiting an opportunity to raise the theme of penal reform, & this news offers both an opportunity to report on one of Brazil's most serious social ills as well as to cast an eye closer to home and appraise the efforts of the new Irish regime as much as new Irish opposition to properly deal with Ireland's penal institutional problems. |
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