Inegra

To help Black women in conflict with the law have access to justice with a view to increasing the guarantee of their rights and reducing the number of temporary arrests in the state of Ceará.

• Audiovisual production on the situation of imprisonment and on the impact on the life of Black women, involving the various subjects of the legal, social and imprisoned women themselves.
• Publication of a report on the monitoring of public women’s prisons in the countryside of the State of Ceará, with a view to dealing with violations of their human rights, making sure their voices are heard and promoting direct qualitative dialogue with Black women.
• Carrying out an advocacy campaign within the justice and judiciary systems of the state of Ceará to tackle the actions of the Deregulation Agenda, based on a strategic communication plan that will use various languages to establish a dialogue with the involved actors of these two systems.
• Participation in the Committee for Monitoring State Policies for Women Deprived of Liberty and for those who have already been released.
• Participation in the People’s Public Security Forum, which is in the process of being constituted.
• Public Hearings on the themes related to the Project.
• Visits to verify the imprisonment conditions of Black women in the different regions of Ceará.

Brazil is the 4th in the ranking of largest incarcerated populations in the world, and the fifth when only women’s prisons are considered. Between 2000 and 2016, the female prison population grew 698%, from 5,601 to 44,721 incarcerated women. This percentage is more than double the male prison population growth over the same period, which was 220%. What makes this situation even worse is that the majority of the prison population is formed by provisional prisoners, that is, they were not tried or condemned.

In the country, the percentage of provisional female prisoners is 43%. In Ceará, according to an article on the local newspaper, published in April/2017, this percentage is close to 80%, which proves provisional arrest is not an exception, but the rule. The Women’s Criminal Institute (IPF), Auri Moura Costa, Ceará is able to accommodate 374 women, but in reality there are 850 women incarcerated in this prison at the moment.  Provisional prisons lead to overcrowding and overcrowding further aggravates women’s unjust and unworthy living conditions.

Most of the women incarcerated in Brazil are Black (68%), young (49%), impoverished, mothers (80%), with low schooling, who are unemployed and were arrested for drug trafficking (70%), privileged trafficking (carrying drug into prison during visits) and for being users. The life of imprisoned women is marked by violations since childhood. Imprisonment contributes to the escalation of law violations, even after women are acquitted or have completed their sentence.

Inegra was created in 2003 by a group of 13 Black women. It works on strengthening the political organization of Black women in Ceará and seeks to influence the political agenda of the organizations and movements committed to the feminist, anti-racist and anti-capitalist struggle. The organization have already been supported in 2015, through the project “By the Wings of Maat: Expanding the access to justice for imprisoned women in Ceará”; and in 2016, through the project “Black Women: Breaking the Links of the New Chains.”

Women’s Forum of Ceará.
Office of Human Rights and Legal Counsel Frei Tito de Alencar.
Laboratory of Studies and Research in Afro-Brazilian issues, Gender and Family.
Prison Ministry.