Superior Court of Justice orders the release of prisoners whose freedom was conditioned on the payment of bail.

247 - The Minister of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), Sebastião Reis Júnior, extended nationwide the decision that mandates the release of prisoners whose provisional release was conditioned on the payment of bail. According to the magistrate, it is necessary to reduce overcrowding in prisons to further prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Currently, the disease affects 6,9 people in Brazil, with 244 deaths.

The injunction was initially granted last Friday (27), for inmates in Espírito Santo. After the decision, Public Defenders from several states submitted requests to the STJ to extend the effects of the measure. The reports were published in Fausto Macedo's blog. 

According to the minister, "the Judiciary cannot act as a power detached from the desires of society. It is known that the pandemic has already had a great financial impact on the Brazilian economic landscape, increasing the unemployment rate and decreasing, or even eliminating, the income of Brazilian citizens, which makes the decision to condition provisional release on the payment of bail even more unreasonable."

"Given what the National Council of Justice advocates in its Resolution, maintaining the investigated individuals in prison solely due to non-payment of bail is not proportionate, since the cases – notably of lesser severity – do not reveal the exceptional circumstances essential for a preventive detention order," he wrote.