A National Antimanicomial Policy elaborated by CNJ (National Council of Justice) It has completed two years since it was established. During this period, the implementation is still idle and with actions against the norm in the STF (Federal Supreme Court).
The new CNJ legislation regulates a federal law of 2001 and orders the closure of judicial asylums, which are psychiatric hospitals aimed at people with mental disabilities who have committed crimes and considered unable to respond legally for their actions.
In practice, policy has established the CNJ’s understanding that people considered unimputable should be treated in community health services and opened by SUS (Unified Health System)like the Caps (Psychosocial Care Centers)and not in the prison system.
Since the establishment of the standard, experts and entities have diverged about the implementation of the policy and the case has reached the Supreme Court.
CNJ resolution began to be analyzed by the court after three ADIs (Direct Unconstitutionality Action) and one ADPF (Fundamental precept non -compliance argument)processes moved by ABP (Brazilian Association of Psychiatry)for the CONAMP (National Association of Members of the Public Prosecution Service) and by the parties We can e União Brasil.
The trial is suspended after the minister’s request for view Flávio Dino.
Policy is based on human rights principles and existing legislation in Brazil, such as the Psychiatric Reform Law (Law No. 10.216/2001), which determines the progressive replacement of psychiatric hospitals with community services.
In a joint note signed by 24 entities, including the CFM (Federal Council of Medicine)the Brazilian Association of Psychiatry and the AMB (Brazilian Medical Association)there is a position against the CNJ resolution and support to the actions that are being processed in the Supreme.
“The resolution also disregards the medical view of expertise, hospitalization, monitoring and evaluation of these people, suppressing constituted rights, endangering general hospitals, psychosocial care centers and therapeutic residential services (SRT), as well as the safety of all who transit through these places,” he justifies.
An emblematic and nationally known case of an unimputable is from the Adélio Bispo… He was responsible for stabbing the former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) During 2018 election campaign.
After investigation by the Federal Police and evaluation of medical reports, the Federal Court considered Adélio Bispo as an imputable in the incident of mental insanity within the process that investigated the attack.
The new CNJ standard does not guarantee automatic freedom, but changes the focus of punishment for care, and requires the state to offer alternatives to the treatment of these people.
In the case of Adélio, a possible release, if the policy was in full application, would depend on updated clinical evaluations and the ability of the mental health system to welcome it outside the prison environment.
Implementation
Since the beginning of the implementation of the new policy, only the State of Ceará informed the CNJ that it has fully complied with the new model of treatment of people with disorders in conflict with the law.
While 12 states presented plans that commit themselves to comply with the new policy this year:
- Acre
- Amazonas
- Bahia
- Paraíba
- To
- Pernambuco
- Paraná
- Rio Grande do Norte
- Rondônia
- Roraima
- Sergipe
- Tocantins
Another 10 must comply with implementation by 2026:
- Alagoas
- Amapá
- Federal district
- Holy Spirit
- Minas Gerais
- Mato Grosso do Sul
- Mato Grosso
- Rio Grande do Sul
- Santa Catarina
- São Paulo
According to the Council, the states Rio de Janeiro and Goiás were instructed to re -present the document with complementation. Already the states of Piauí and Maranhão have documents under analysis.
According to the CNJ, the deadlines set forth in each plane were built in a collaborative and intersectoral manner by the states themselves, based on local diagnoses that consider both actions in progress and those that still require articulation between the powers to enable the implementation of policy.
In the last report on the implementation of the policy, the Council informs that “the dialogue of federative units with the CNJ is happening in a republican way, based on reality, with their possibilities and their challenges and with responsibility and respect for the adversities of each state, so as not to leave the citizens and citizens who have mental disorders or disabilities and who are in conflict with the law”.
Sought by CNNthe National Council of Justice did not return contact to answer questions about the positions of criticism of the entities and experts to politics.
SHEETS: Violent and precarious
While antimanicomial national policy is not fully applied, asylums across the country are precarious.
According to a report on inspections in judicial asylums, carried out by the CFP (Federal Council of Psychology)published in July this year, shows that units in the country have precarious structures and use of physical and psychological violence against inmates.
According to the document, 2,053 people with psychosocial disabilities in conflict with the law are still institutionalized in these places. The inspection visited 42 institutions, from January to March 2025, in 21 federative units in all regions of Brazil.
HAS CNNthe president of the Federal Council of Psychology, Alessandra Almeida, explains that, throughout the history of the inspections editions, it is shown that these institutions do not promote care.
“We find people in isolation there, people who when they went out they got out and absence of therapeutic projects,” he said.
The report finds evidence of systematic practices of violence within institutions, including applied physical and chemical containments without clinical justification, verbal and physical aggressions, punitive isolation, family ties break and absence of effective mechanisms for complaints and protection.
According to the inspection, many of these institutions, with asylum profile, face serious infrastructure problems: deteriorated environments, severely restricted circulation, absence of accessibility and chronic overcrowding. Access to drinking water and food is scarce and unhealthy, and there is a lack of basic items such as personal hygiene products and suitable bedding.
