Imagine you are a 15 year old girl, and suddenly you find your self surrounded by 34 men, and for 26 days all of them treat you as a an object. You spend your days in fear of rape and beatings, you scream and cry but it makes no difference at all. Soon you begin to give and and beg for food, submitting your body out of hunger. This is not a horror movie, not is this the fictional character in a film about an isolated rouge town, this is the true story of a Brazilian teenager who was thrown into prison, alone with nothing but men, over a petty crime. Her protectors, the police and guards, only aided in the anarchy that was to befall her for almost a month.
While the imprisonment of the 15 year old girl was clearly illegal, and it has brought considerable concern to the region where, on the borders of the Brazilian Amazon lawlessness reigns, and has done so throughout history. The frightening fact in this case, is the number of people who could have ended this child suffering, but yet did nothing, and many only added to her suffering. Ms. Soares, the girls lawyer, said;
"Several officials were aware of what was happening, and at worst they were complicit in it. It's a very serious situation."
“The police are rarely convicted under a 1997 law against torture, because of an "institutionalizing of torture" under Brazil's military dictatorship and more than 300 years of slavery, said Paulo Vanucchi, Brazil's human rights minister.” (Rape of Girl, 15, Exposes Abuses in Brazil Prison System)
This is not an isolated case, as the abusive detainment of children in Brazil is not a new occurrence, Human Rights Watch has continually investigated abuses in juvenile detention centers, such as can be found in the report, CRUEL CONFINEMENT: Abuses Against Detained Children in Northern Brazil (2003). However this case also highlights the sever violations of women in the penal system, and the lack of adequate accommodation, support, and protection.
