"There are a couple of other reasons for overcrowding. Torpid justice systems mean that many prisoners are on remand, yet to be convicted of any crime. Prison reformers in Venezuela say around 70% of inmates have yet to be sentenced; many wait years even for a hearing, and must pay gang bosses for the privilege of going to court. Sentenced prisoners, on the other hand, have been known to bribe their way to freedom. Around half of the inmates in both Brazil and Honduras have not been sentenced. Remand prisoners can languish for years, mixing with hardened gang members. The result is that jails are “schools of crime”, says Migdonia Ayestas of the Observatory of Violence, a Honduran NGO. Yet, despite all the evidence that Brazilian prisons are hellish and lock up many of the wrong people, there is scant sympathy for those behind bars. In an opinion poll in 2008, 73% said that prison conditions should be made tougher still. Poor and black Brazilians are as likely to be hard-line as rich, white ones are, even though they are far more likely to be put behind bars themselves. In Brazil the prison population is overwhelmingly ill-educated (two-thirds of prisoners did not finish primary school) and poor (95%). Blacks are twice as likely as whites to be in jail (they form two-thirds of prisoners but only half of the population). On the other hand, public-sector workers, politicians, judges, priests and anyone with a degree cannot be held in a common prison while awaiting trial. That is one reason why pressure for prison reform has been so weak."
Prisons in Latin America: A journey into hell | The Economist
http://www.economist.com/node/21563288