RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) 鈥� When 33-year-old Brazilian woman Emily de Souza heard about a program allowing her to shave off four days from her prison sentence by reading a book, she seized the opportunity to reconnect with a cherished habit.
Like tens of thousands of detainees across the country 鈥� including former President 鈥� she signed up for a sentence reduction program that encourages inmates to immerse themselves in literary works in exchange for reducing their sentences by up to 48 days per year.
The possibility of reuniting earlier with her 9-year-old autistic son, who her mother and aunt are looking after, only ramped up her motivation to participate in the project.
鈥淥ne day is an eternity because it feels like it鈥檚 never going to end,鈥� said de Souza, who is incarcerated at the Djanira Dolores de Oliveira Women鈥檚 Prison in , which houses approximately 820 female detainees.
Reading is 鈥渁 kind of escape, to get out of this environment for a bit, to think about other things: other stories, other people, not just me,鈥� she said.
Like most of her fellow inmates, de Souza was sentenced for drug-trafficking. She said she received five-year prison term for selling a cannabis-infused Brazilian chocolate treat known as 鈥渂rigadeiro鈥� in Portuguese. She arrived last November, but hopes to progress to Brazil’s semiopen prison regime in August, which would allow her to leave prison during the day to work.
Brazil, which has one of the highest per-capita incarceration rates in Latin America, stands out for having one of the most formalized and nationwide systems for sentence remission via reading in the world. The rapidly growing program, which was first formally regulated in 2012 and then standardized across in 2021, received renewed attention earlier this year after the Supreme Court authorized Bolsonaro 鈥� who is serving for attempting a coup 鈥� to take part.
鈥業t helps us a lot鈥�
Andr茅ia Oliveira, coordinator of female prisons and LGBTIQ+ inclusion in Rio state鈥檚 prisons, said that access to reading programs and schools helps the individual once they have left prison 鈥� but also society. 鈥淲hen we encourage education, ludic activities, knowledge, we return to society someone who can reconnect, respect rules,鈥� she said.
Since 2022, literature professor Paulo Roberto Tonani has been conducting workshops in prisons so detainees in Rio can benefit from the measure.
Participants choose or are given a book in the initial kick off activity. They then discuss their book in the next encounter and finally, in a third meeting, they produce a review or a drawing that demonstrates comprehension.
Detainees have read 鈥淐aptain of the Sands鈥� by renowned Brazilian author Jorge Amado, 鈥淐rime and Punishment鈥� by and 鈥� 鈥� by Alice Walker.
A much-loved favorite of participants is the illustrated book 鈥淔ather Francisco,鈥� by Marina Miyazaki Araujo, which tells the story of an incarcerated father from the child鈥檚 perspective, said Tonani. Many detainees in Brazilian prisons are from a poor background and did not complete basic education.
Some participants in the late March workshop at the Djanira Dolores de Oliveira prison were reading 鈥淯nsubmissive Tears of Women鈥� by 鈥� including Celina Maria de Concei莽茫o, a 50-year-old woman originally from the northern state of Pernambuco.
De Concei莽茫o, who took part in the workshops last year and signed up again, said she developed the taste for reading thanks to the project.
鈥淚t helps us a lot because we鈥檙e locked up and it gets very stressful, very noisy,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e get to go to somewhere else, interact with other people and talk about good things, like the book we鈥檙e studying.鈥�
Unequal access
But she said she had to put down Evaristo鈥檚 book, which explores on Black women鈥檚 lives, after it upset her.
鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 good for me, because it stirs up our emotions, and we鈥檙e in a place where the environment is already truly heavy,鈥� she said.
Brazilian prisons are renowned for overcrowding and harsh conditions. In 2023, the Supreme Court recognized mass human rights violations in the prison system and ordered the federal government to develop a plan to resolve the situation. Called 鈥淛ust Punishment,鈥� it was launched in 2025 and among other goals seeks to expand study and work opportunities.
While progress has been made, access to earning time off by reading remains unequal across Brazil, said Rodrigo Dias, head of education, culture and sport in the country鈥檚 National Secretariat of Penal Policies.
In the , some prisoners were handed a with 300 literary works on them, whereas other, more conservative states have heavy bureaucracy which hinders access, Dias said.
A 2023 government report found that some 30% of Brazilian prison units do not have libraries or adequate reading spaces. But Dias pointed to the secretariat鈥檚 data, which shows that the number of remission requests via reading has increased sevenfold since 2021.
Like de Concei莽茫o, once people began participating, they often want to continue. 鈥淭he book gives them the possibility to dream, and often to 鈥榯alk鈥� with other people 鈥� not those who are imprisoned or working in the facility, but with the characters in the stories,鈥� Dias said.
鈥楳ore than a mistake鈥�
While Elionaldo Fernandes Juli茫o, co-author of the book 鈥淪entence Remission Through Reading in Brazil: The Right to Education in Contest鈥� and a professor at the Fluminense Federal University, underscores the importance of accessing books in prisons, he argues that oftentimes Brazil’s sentence reduction programs through reading are used as a substitute for developing access to education, which is much more costly.
Juli茫o also said that access to the policy and books often depends on local projects. 鈥淯nfortunately, these are very easy to eliminate or shut down as quickly as possible,鈥� he said.
During the recent workshop, de Souza read out loud a poem written by formerly imprisoned Argentine writer Liliana Cabrera. One of the lines affirms the narrator is 鈥淎lso something more / than the letters in black / of a court case.鈥�
De Souza shared that the words resonated deeply.
鈥淪omeone knew how to explain with beautiful terms (鈥�) that I鈥檓 a lot more than a court case, a lot more than the mistake I made, that I鈥檓 a human with my story,鈥� she said.
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