ABSTRACT
In 2015, the Supreme Court of Brazil held that the prison system was disregarding the constitution as prisons were chronically overcrowded and lacked basic hygiene. The current COVID-19 pandemic has posed an even greater threat to individuals living and working inside these facilities. This led to the enactment by the National Justice Council and the National Penitentiary Department of an emergency criminal policy aimed at safeguarding individual and public health within the prison system during the crisis. Although its primary stated objective was the reduction of the number of prisoners, especially because prisons housed many prisoners sentenced for petty or minor offences, the Brazilian prison population and the proportion of provisional detainees increased since the enactment of the emergency criminal policy in March 2020. The Brazilian prison system was inhumane before the pandemic, and the crisis does not seem to have contributed to effecting changes.
