ABSTRACT
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is a federal republic comprising 26 states and one federal district, where federal laws take precedence over state laws. The country’s primary federal laws include the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil (Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil), which is the supreme law and defines the legislative powers of the federal government, states, and municipalities (Brasil, 1988). The Penal Code (Código Penal) (Decree-Law No. 2848/40; Brasil, 1940), amended by Law No. 7209/84, exempts legally incompetent individuals from punishment for crimes and, in some cases, allows for reduced criminal responsibility (Brasil, 1984a). The Penal Execution Law (Lei de Execuções Penais) (Law No. 7210/84) establishes the agencies responsible for enforcing sentences and defines the types of facilities used to incarcerate both ordinary offenders and individuals with mental illnesses who have committed crimes. Furthermore, the law outlines the process for committing individuals with mental disorders to a psychiatric institution within a hospital or, if that is not possible, to a prison facility. It also establishes the psychiatric evaluation procedures required for both ordinary criminals and those undergoing criminal commitment to serve their sentences (Brasil, 1984b). Finally, the Penal Procedural Code (Decree-Law No. 3689/41) sets out the procedures for expert evaluations to determine whether a defendant has a mental disorder (Brasil, 1941).
