Going backwards: The fate of the individual with mental disorder that commit crimes in Brazil

Abstract

Psychiatric reform in Brazil made it possible, among other benefits, to replace the psychiatric medical model with the psychosocial care model. Psychiatric hospitalization is now contraindicated, except in cases in which extra-hospital resources are inadequate or when judicially indicated. In such cases, assistance to mentally ill people who are perpetrators of crime is carried out in the Custody and Psychiatric Treatment Facilities (ECTP), where these individuals are hospitalized for compliance with the security measure imposed. Between 2015 and 2016, the National Mechanism for Combating and Preventing Torture (Mecanismo Nacional de Combate e Prevenção à Tortura – MNCPT, in Portuguese) carried out the inspection of detention units, releasing reports describing its current situation. To date, five custody establishments have been visited in the states of Pará, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Sul, Rondônia and São Paulo. This article discusses the right to health in the context of ECTPs. Circulating between the domains of law and medicine, this population has their human rights violated and, although geographically distant, it is unanimous that advances in mental health care have not addressed ECTPs, which still preserve asylum characteristics.