DF: 1,800 prisoners benefit from “outing” during Easter

The Federal District Penitentiary Administration Secretariat (Seape-DF) reported that 1,808 prisoners benefited from temporary release due to the Easter holiday. The number includes 47 women. The “saidinha”, as the benefit is popularly known, started at 7am this Wednesday (28/3) and will end at 10am next Monday (1st/4).

In the case of custodians who have the benefit of external work implemented, they will return at the end of the working day. According to Seape-DF, anyone who does not return on the scheduled day and time will be considered a fugitive and may lose their right to semi-open regime.

The leave is provided for by ordinance of the Criminal Executions Court (VEP/DF) and includes custodians who are serving sentences in the semi-open regime and who have authorization to work externally or temporarily leave. VEP established nine temporary departures this year, totaling 36 days.

Anyone can anonymously provide information about custodians by calling (61) 9 9666-6000 from the DF Penal Police.

End of the outings

On March 20 of this year, the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies approved in a symbolic vote the bill (PL) nº 2,253/22, which ends the temporary release of prisoners, the so-called outings. The text must be sent to the desk of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) so that he can sanction or veto the law. As the PL was approved unanimously in the Chamber, the tendency is for the president to sign the sanction.

The text was approved by the Senate in February this year and returned to the Chamber of Deputies. Last week, the Secretary of Public Security of São Paulo, Guilherme Derrite, took leave from his position to temporarily resume his mandate as federal deputy. He was the project’s rapporteur when the text passed through the Chamber in 2022, and took on the role of rapporteur for the text again, directly in the plenary.

The text makes an exception only for inmates who study and work. In these cases, they will be entitled to temporary departures to fulfill the workload of professional courses, secondary or higher education.

This exception was not included in the text initially approved by the Chamber, but was included by senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), rapporteur on the matter in the Senate, after mobilization by Sergio Moro (União-PR).

“Allowing prisoners who have committed minor crimes, without violence or threats, to study seems to be a valve that boosts the prisoner’s reinsertion process, enabling a more effective reintegration after the reprimands imposed on him have been recovered”, argued Derrite.

The author of the original project, federal deputy Pedro Paulo (PSD-RJ), criticized the changes made to the text and stated that they end the resocialization of inmates. “Going out to study and work is not resocializing,” he highlighted.

“We are, due to the problem of a minority that could be controlled and contained, extinguishing this right for the vast majority”, continued Pedro Paulo, in a speech in the plenary.