Brazil is a country where the correctional systems runs with 200.000 people over capacity and has had a 100-page UN report condemning practices which deny basic human rights, yet prison riots are treated by media simply as gang plots with no particular reason; Captain Nascimento, the protagonist of the "Elite Squad" films (who methodically kills/tortures drug traffickers) is regarded almost always as a hero instead of an aspect of the police to be criticized.

Particularly in the elections that happened last year, proposals to "end impunity" (as lowering the age for being treated as an adult in court) have had largely more electoral effect and have been widely more propagated than projects for improving rehabilitation capability or respecting human rights in prisons. In fact, it's common to hear the maxim "Human rights for right people [and not for criminals]" around here to disqualify proposals of the latter.

Thanks to this public opinion trend, stories like those in the article about people who are able to "get out" instead of being arrested or killed are largely ignored. (Seeing them on Hacker News is easier than on the daily newspaper or even than on left-wing blogs which hardly have journalism potential to get a story like this.) It's nice to see them.