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Brazil jail violence: Forty inmates found dead at separate prisons Brazil jail violence: Forty killed in Manaus prisons
(about 5 hours later)
At least 40 inmates have been found dead at separate prisons in northern Brazil a day after 15 prisoners were killed in gang clashes, officials say. Forty inmates have been found dead at four separate prisons in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state in northern Brazil.
The latest deaths, which were reported in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, all appeared to be the result of asphyxiation, authorities said. All the bodies, which were found during routine inspections, showed signs of asphyxiation, officials said.
They added that staff had discovered the victims during routine inspections at four different prison facilities. Monday's violence came a day after 15 prisoners were killed in jail clashes in Manaus.
A task force has been sent to "control the disturbances," officials said. The state governor said a task force had been sent to Amazonas to help control the disturbances.
Several other inmates were injured in Monday's incidents, according to Brazil's Globo news website (in Portuguese). What happened where on Monday?
The majority of the victims were discovered at the Antônio Trindade institute near Manaus, while deaths were also reported at the Puraquequara and Provisional Detention Centre facilities in Amazonas state. What's behind the deaths?
The local governor, Wilson Lima, described the situation on Monday as a "crisis". Prison officials said that the victims belonged to the same drug trafficking group and that they had been killed due to an internal gang rift.
He added that an investigation launched on Sunday would be extended to include the latest deaths. Robert Muggah, who is research director at the Igarape Institute think tank in Rio de Janeiro, told Agence France-Presse news agency that he thought a "settling of scores" was behind the killings.
On Sunday, clashes reportedly broke out during visiting hours at Anísio Jobim Penitentiary Complex in the region. What happened on Sunday?
Officials said the prisoners had been stabbed with sharpened toothbrushes and strangled to death. Fifteen inmates died in clashes in Anísio Jobim jail when prisoners turned on each other. Some were stabbed with sharpened toothbrushes while others were strangled.
The violence over the weekend was witnessed by visitors. The violence broke out during visiting hours and the mother of one inmate described it as "total chaos".
"It was total chaos," the mother of an inmate - who did not wish to be named - told the Rio Times.
"Everyone started to run, and everyone was pounding on the cell gates, at the doors, and running down the corridors.""Everyone started to run, and everyone was pounding on the cell gates, at the doors, and running down the corridors."
Overcrowding
It comes two years after infighting killed 56 at the same jail, one of the deadliest riots ever in a Brazilian prison.
Brazil has the world's third-largest prison population - 712,305 inmates in April this year, according to official figures.
The population is nearly double the capacity of Brazil's prisons. The overcrowding has led to gang violence, riots and sometimes breakout attempts.
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In early 2017, several violent rebellions left 119 people dead in jails in northern Brazil. "It was not a rebellion, it was a fight among inmates," Col Marcus Vinicius, who is in charge of prisons in Amazonas state, said.
About 92 inmates also escaped last September after heavily armed men set off explosives outside a prison and shot their way inside, killing a policeman. He said the fact that the killings had happened during visiting hours broke an unwritten prison rule of "never to kill during a family visit".
Col Vinicius said murders inside jails were inevitable: "We have to have the maturity to understand that in any prison in the world, when someone wants to kill, they will kill."
What are Brazilian jails like?
Brazil has the world's third-largest prison population with more than 700,000 people in jail, not counting the more than 35,000 held in police facilities, according to data from the World Prison Brief.
Prisons suffer from serious overcrowding, with the number of prisoners almost double that of the official capacity.
Many prisons are run by the inmates and there are frequent clashes between rival gangs. Riots to demand better conditions and prison escapes are also common.
Attempts to reform the prison system and to introduce tighter controls have met with resistance from powerful criminal gangs which operate both inside and outside of jails.Attempts to reform the prison system and to introduce tighter controls have met with resistance from powerful criminal gangs which operate both inside and outside of jails.
Earlier this year, gangs launched around 80 attacks on public buildings, banks, buses and petrol stations - many of them believed to have been carried out in retaliation for the proposed reforms. What has the reaction been?
The crisis in the Amazonas jail system is not new. In January 2017, in the worst jail violence in Amazonas state, 56 inmates were killed in Anísio Jobim prison.
Following those killing, officials launched an investigation which concluded that there had been a number of failings at the jail.
They included a lack of communication between prison authorities and the police, which meant that the latter had not been alerted when officials found out about plans to launch a riot.
In the following days there were also uprisings and riots in other jails in Manaus.
National security forces were deployed to Anísio Jobim jail and others in the wake of the 2017 killings and, according to local media, the forces were still there when the latest killings happened.
Amazonas State Governor Wilson Lima said that the justice ministry would send a "prison intervention team" to Manaus.
In the past, rival gangs have been separated within prisons by placing them in different wings and using shipping containers to divide the prison yard.