SÃO PAULO – Repeated restrictions imposed by state governments and prison directors on the spiritual assistance provided to inmates in Brazil prompted the Bishops’ Conference to directly request help ...

SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Twenty prisoners are often stacked in a cell designed for five. Inmates, who on paper have a right to trial within 81 days, routinely stew in prison for six or seven months, or ...

Police and soldiers are being deployed in large numbers to Brazil's northeast to fight a wave of gang violence fueled by the overloaded, collapsing prison system. More than 400 elite federal troops ...

Forty-six inmates involved in one of Brazil's deadliest prison riots were being transferred to other jails on Tuesday, an official said. At least 57 people were killed Monday when fighting broke out ...