Criminal Justice Network

To promote the advocacy agenda of the Criminal Justice Network, focusing on the discussion around mass incarceration and the prevalence of deprivation of liberty in Brazil.

• Disseminate material related to the campaign “Mass Imprisonment is not justice” on the radio.
• Promote discussion events about imprisonment in four cities (in principle: Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, Recife and Belo Horizonte).
• Implement a plan to increase adherence to the campaign’s online petition.
• Map and engage civil society actors outside the criminal justice field against mass incarceration and its consequences for society.
• Map and engage civil society actors outside the criminal justice field against mass incarceration its consequences for society.
• Map and engage civil society actors outside the criminal justice field against mass incarceration and its consequences for society.

Develop a criminal justice agenda for 2018.

The Brazilian political scene has shown to be a disadvantageous one for advancing guidelines that deepen the protection of social interests and fundamental rights. On the contrary, in the face of a demagogic and physiological National Congress and a particularly unstable political structure since 2015, a liberal-conservative vision is spreading and it involves setbacks in various fields: social security, the environment, demarcation of indigenous and Maroon lands, labor rights, public safety, basic education, transparency and political representation. In this context, the focus of the Criminal Justice Network and many other human rights protection movements has focused on curbing threats to fundamental guarantees already secured or violations of constitutional principles and international human rights law. In this way, the efforts made by the social defense movements are weakened. The Network believes that there is a potential for articulation and mobilization of organized civil society to be explored, aiming to constitute a broad resistance against the threats that being posed.

Created in 2010 to combat the abusive use of provisional prison, the Criminal Justice Network is a group formed by eight Brazilian civil society organizations working for a criminal justice system that is more just and attentive to fundamental rights and guarantees. The Network’s role is based on a critique of the predominant use of prison by the state as a response to crime, denouncing the choice of a punitive criminal policy that leads to mass incarceration.