Faced with the increase in crime in Rio de Janeiro and other states, the governor of Rio, Cláudio Castro, and senators Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) and Carlos Portinho (PL-RJ) decided to prepare a package of bills, such as a mini-reform of public security, to speed up the National Congress.
The announcement of the initiative took place at a press conference, this Tuesday (12), after a meeting on the subject with the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG).
The mini-reform comes to counter the Public Security PEC that was presented by the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to the governors last week. The proposal prepared by the Minister of Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski, displeased the majority of state representatives and was widely criticized for not providing an “effective solution to combat crime and strengthen the police”.
According to senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the mini-reform aims to “compile all the proposals in progress into a single project that will be presented by the Senate Public Security Committee”. He reinforced that the proposals differ greatly from the Lula government’s PEC and will be voted much faster, as they do not require a quorum or more than one session for approval.
“It is obvious that with this proposal we do not intend to solve all public security problems in Brazil, but Rio de Janeiro in particular is a state that is suffering more than other entities in the federation”, explained the parliamentarian.
Governor Cláudio Castro emphasized the importance of partnership with the Legislature to advance public security projects. “We have to transform this tragic situation that happened in Rio de Janeiro into effective changes. There is a clear disagreement between the current legislation and the current situation, that is, there is an incentive for crime today,” he said.
The package should be announced by the end of this week and Pacheco has already assured senators that he intends to speed up the processing.
“Unfortunately, violence has reached unsustainable and unacceptable levels that require a response from the Legislature and the Executive,” highlighted Flávio.
As soon as the mini-reform is approved by the Security collegiate, the text must go to a vote in the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ), where President Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP) must deal with the matter urgently, as Senator Flávio said.
Custody hearing and sentence progression
Among the priorities of the mini-reform, Flávio Bolsonaro highlighted that there will be changes to the custody hearing. According to him, this procedure is a “revolving door for criminals who, when they are arrested, return to the streets to commit new crimes”.
“Our proposal will be to change the issue of recidivism to create a new criminal concept of habituality in a very summarized way. Today, only those who have a final and retrial sentence and commit a new crime are repeat offenders”, explained Flávio.
He also mentioned the need to change the regime progression criteria, update criminal legislation in the context of criminal organizations, in addition to making it impossible for criminals to access large weapons such as rifles.
“It is no longer possible for legislation to be so benevolent towards anyone who is caught committing a crime of trafficking, a crime of extortion, a crime of robbery, a crime of robbery, using a rifle and simply in practice he is not even increased for a day. your shame”, highlights the senator.
Another measure will be to remove investment in public security from the Fiscal Responsibility Law or outside what the State can use when it is under a tax recovery regime.
“All spending on public security competes, for example, with spending on education, health, science and technology. And if we manage to put this in another fund within the Fiscal Responsibility Law, we will be able to continue making social investments and that they do not compete with security investments”, informed governor Cláudio Castro.
Reaction to the “ADPF of the favelas”
The “jury interference” of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) in public security in Rio de Janeiro, through ADPF 635 or “ADPF das favelas”, was also another point heavily criticized by parliamentarians and the Rio governor. The action will be judged in the Court’s plenary session this Wednesday (13).
“In practice, they made the work of our police unfeasible, bringing great legal uncertainty to our public security professionals and generated a great incentive for Rio de Janeiro to become a large headquarters for criminal organizations and criminals from all states in Brazil” , said Flávio Bolsonaro.
The mini-reform, according to the parliamentarian, is a “kind of reaction” to the STF’s legal interference.
Despite denying any reaction to the STF, governor Cláudio Castro emphasized that ADPF 635 only caused “damage to Rio de Janeiro and made the work of the police impossible”. He highlighted that he expects a change in the STF’s understanding and said that 3 reports prepared by the Rio police will be presented that reinforce the problems caused by the ADPF.
