PUBLIC CIVIL ACTION TO PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF PEOPLE DEPRIVED OF LIBERTY

Abstract

The prison situation in Brazil is totally at odds with the normative ideal (Constitution, international human rights treaties, and infra-constitutional legislation). Evidently, the Public Power itself, as the holder of the exclusive right to punish, could, in its regular exercise, comply with national and international standards related to prison, allowing the sentence execution in accordance with the foreseen objectives. But that is not the reality. As a result, the research carried out in the thesis intends to demonstrate that public civil action can be an important instrument to correct the problem, allowing the protection of rights of people deprived of liberty. In this sense, the main rights related to the execution of a custodial sentence as an object of public civil action are analyzed, starting from the Constitution, going through international human rights treaties, and arriving at internal legislation, especially the Law of Criminal Executions. For this purpose, important institutes of collective procedural law as well as parties to public civil action, jurisdiction and the Diffuse Rights Fund are also read considering this specific object.