Courts of Accounts go to prison: administration of public resources in securing prisoners’ rights

Abstract

In the last decade, Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court has tried several cases that structurally affected Brazil’s prison system. The paradigmatic judgment is the declaration of an unconstitutional state of affairs in the face of the generalized and systemic violation of the fundamental rights of prisoners in 2015. The declaration triggered a variety of actions from different agencies, and authorities to assess, intervene and call for accountability for the repeated inability to modify the conditions of prisons. This paper deals with the recommendations from audit reports issued by financial and budget control agencies and aims to analyze how these conclusions are inserted in declaring an “unconstitutional state of affairs” of the Brazil’s prison system. The methodology consists of a qualitative documentary analysis of the content of rulings of the Federal Court of Accounts and the Supreme Court of Brazil. This study concludes that control agencies have a relevant role in the creation of a standard to assess the rights of prisoners, through minimum indicators of efficiency and administration that allow for an assessment of progress and regression in securing these rights. This article contributes to the existing literature that analyzes the judicialization processes of penitentiary matters, to the debate on the minimum information needed to secure the dignity of prisoners, and to the reflection on integrated solutions among different stakeholders.