Conceição Paganele

Incarcerated youth in Brazil face daily violence and abuse, confined by a system with little respect for their humanity and dignity. Conceição Paganele places the mothers of these young people at the head of a campaign to reform the juvenile justice system and ensure fair, humane rehabilitation for Brazilian youth.

In 1998, Conceição created the Association of Mothers and Friends of Children and Adolescents at Risk (AMAR) to improve the lot of imprisoned youth in the State of São Paulo. Through social and political empowerment of inmates’ mothers, and based on the provisions of the Statute of the Child and Adolescent (ECA), Conceição created a role for AMAR as a watchdog for the juvenile justice system and a mediator between the system, imprisoned youth, and their families. Through a partnership with the nongovernmental organization Conectas Human Rights, Conceição handles individual and collective judicial claims, seeks financial compensation for abused youths, requests facilities without adequate working conditions be shut down, and nurtures public support for the rights of incarcerated young people.
Perhaps most importantly, Conceição works closely with the families of adolescents in prison, who are often unaware of the abusive conditions of youth correctional facilities, and who have little power to ensure that their children are given the rights and protections guaranteed by law. Conceição trains mothers to lead the monitoring and evaluating of confinement units, and positions them as leading activists and spokespeople for youth rights. Ultimately, her new model helps families ensure that throughout their process of rehabilitation, young detainees are treated with humanity and dignity.

When children and adolescents are convicted of a crime in Brazil, the state remands them to one of three courses of punishment and rehabilitation: some young convicts work with social workers and psychologists in the Assisted Liberty program; some find themselves in Semi-Liberty, which requires them to work or study during the day and return to a government center to sleep. A third group is sent to the Confinement Program (also known as deprivation of liberty), which currently imprisons 10,400 youths in 200 units across Brazil.
Over the last four years, the number of adolescents convicted of criminal behavior has increased by 67 percent in Brazil, adding pressure to an already-strained juvenile justice system. This pressure has only compounded the problems of the Confinement Program, where abuse and even torture have become systemic problems, and many facilities no longer comply with the minimum hygiene and safety conditions mandated by law. Many are heavily overcrowded, particularly in the State of São Paulo, which holds approximately 65 percent of the inmates in Brazil. The state’s Foundation for the Welfare of Minors (FEBEM) holds 6,800 adolescents in 77 units, standing in clear violation of a regulation requiring each unit to hold less than 40 young people. Among the adolescents confined in São Paulo, there were 10 deaths, 26 rebellions and 52 escapes between June 2003 and June 2004. Eight proposals to reform the FEBEM system have been largely ignored by the state government.
The rise in adolescent convictions stems largely from the lack of an effective network of social protections for young people in Brazil. For instance, most of the detained adolescents in São Paulo do not have access to quality education, health services, leisure, and culture. Without access to decent services and caring adults, young people build social and economic networks on the streets, turning toward drugs and crime in ever larger numbers. The juvenile justice system only reinforces the separation between youth and community, excluding family members across the board and, in the case of the Confinement Program, abruptly severing ties between young people and their caregivers.

Conceição brings together the mothers of FEBEM’s young inmates in her Association of Mothers and Friends of Children and Adolescents at Risk to study and enforce the rights guaranteed to their children by Brazilian law. Representatives from AMAR consult with and educate the mothers, clarifying their questions and lending them much-needed emotional support. Together with AMAR, these women hold weekly meetings, share information, and investigate the conditions that their children experience in the juvenile justice system. When those conditions don’t meet the standards demanded by the ECA, the mothers bring lawsuits against governmental bodies like the Department of Childhood and Youth, the Prosecution Office, and the Secretariat of Education.
In their outreach to confinement units, the mothers of AMAR typically bring social workers along to interact directly with the boys, helping them deal with the consequences of their actions and guiding them through the psychological trauma of imprisonment. The mothers and social workers then collect any stories of human rights violations among the youth. After they have verified the truth of these stories, they begin the process of pressing charges, mobilizing the media, and organizing campaigns and public protests. Through a partnership with the citizen sector organization Conectas Human Rights, AMAR has filed dozens of public civil claims, and recently won a campaign to close down a unit of FEBEM due to its lack of safety and minimal health and hygiene conditions.
Conceição also works inside FEBEM, consulting on questions of policy and acting as a mediator in situations of conflict. In October 2004, she won a major change in the relationship between human rights groups and the juvenile justice system: thanks to her efforts, AMAR and four governmental organizations have free access to all units of FEBEM. Where such programs as the State Council for Defending the Rights of Human Beings and the State Council for Children’s and Adolescents’ Rights were excluded before without prior booking, they can now visit and monitor confinement units at their own discretion. She represented AMAR as the only citizen sector organization signing the Program of United Health, which enables the government to keep track of the health of all imprisoned youth, and thus to monitor the health effects of each confinement unit.
The members of AMAR today include 600 mothers whose children have been confined by FEBEM. The mothers generally participate as full members while their children are imprisoned, and then continue to work as “multipliers”, recruiting and guiding new members. Their efforts have already had a measurable effect: while 20 percent of the youths as a whole commit further crimes on release from FEBEM, the average among those assisted by AMAR is only 7 percent.
Conceição puts the recognition she gains to work in spreading the impact of her efforts across Brazil. She is taking her approach to other parts of the State of São Paulo, and is replicating her model of citizen-led reform in three other states: Rio de Janeiro, Piauí and Brasília. Before long, she plans to expand to the whole country, electing local leaders who can secure partnerships and act as representatives of AMAR.

Conceição Paganele was born in a rural town near Conde, in the State of Bahia. She spent her childhood on the farm where her father worked. At the age of 11, she began a job reading letters aloud to people who could not read for themselves. Finding satisfaction in this service, Conceição decided to devote her free time to teaching children to read and write. She began to train her neighbors and friends in an abandoned room of a local farm, later moving to the balcony of her house. When one of the city’s aldermen, touched by her work, financed the construction of a simple classroom, she set about creating a model school. At the age of twelve, she received official recognition from the Municipality of Conde, including a grant to expand her teaching efforts. She began to offer services to adults as well as children.
In her late youth, Conceição’s father died, leaving her responsible for her five younger brothers. Faced with a huge economic burden, she moved to a bigger city in Bahia and began to work as a salesperson. She married early and moved to São Paulo, but eventually separated from her violent, alcoholic husband. Conceição became a widow at the age of 29, and began to raise her children alone, working as a housekeeper, a laundrywoman, and a paper collector to support them.
Her youngest child became involved with illegal drugs in his teenage years, and began to steal in order to sustain his addiction. Conceição spent six months paying drug dealers so that they would not kill her son. She sought the assistance of public offices several times to treat his drug problem. Despite her best efforts, he was sent to FEBEM at age 16 due to car theft and involvement with drugs. He ended up in the Confinement Unit of Imigrantes, nationally known for a large, deadly rebellion that had occurred that same year. Although her son’s prison program was called an education unit, it became clear to Conceição that the abuse and disrespect he experienced in the program would never help him to reintegrate into society.
Surprised at the desperate situation of her son and his fellow inmates, Conceição resolved to reform the juvenile justice system, to protect her child and the thousands of others in Brazil’s prisons. She delved into legal research, becoming an expert in the codes and regulations of criminal justice. She joined forces with other affected mothers and founded AMAR, giving all her energy to extend the group’s impact throughout Brazil.