State of Pernambuco, with country’s most overcrowded prisons, saw two incidents in a week, involving nearly 100 prisoners – with 41 still free

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Forty-one convicts are still on the run after two prison breaks in the past week in the north-eastern Brazilian state of Pernambuco.

On Wednesday night, 53 prisoners escaped from the Barreto Campelo penitentiary after explosives were used to blow a hole in an outer wall. The prison is located on the island of Itamaracá, around 50km north of the state capital, Recife.

By Saturday afternoon, the authorities had succeeded in capturing 13 of the prisoners, when a group of 40 inmates broke out of the Frei Damião de Bozzano jail, part of the Curado prison complex in the western suburbs of Recife, using a similar method.

Dramatic CCTV footage shows the men escaping following the explosion of a device planted outside the jail walls.

Thirty-six of the inmates have now been captured. Two men were killed during the escape following a shootout with police, a third was hospitalised, and another remains on the run.

Investigations are currently underway into how the prisoners managed to escape.

Following the latest jail break, the public prosecutor of the state of Pernambuco, Marcellus Ugiette, called for the closure of the Curado complex, arguing that the incident shows the authorities had no control either inside or outside of its prison units.

The governor of Pernambuco, Paulo Câmera, acknowledged that the complex had “failings” but said that the state has no money to pay for new prisons.

“It’s necessary to keep the prison running and to guarantee the security of the people who live around it,” he said.

Escape attempts are frequent in Pernambuco, which has most overcrowded prison system in Brazil.

Facilities designed for 10,500 inmates hold around 32,000 people, according to a 2015 Human Rights Watch study. 59% of detainees are awaiting trial and are held with convicted prisoners, in violation of Brazilian law.