Brazil’s prison uprising over. Government admits neglect, corruption, and overcrowding

Riot troops stormed a southern prison Friday, quelling uprising by more than 800 inmates less than a month after the biggest prison riots in Brazil's history. Five guards held hostage for almost five hours were freed unharmed, the Sao Paulo State Prison Administration Department said. Fighting between rival prison gangs, armed with makeshift knives, left seven inmates wounded at the prison in the city of Bauru, 190 miles northwest of Sao Paulo, the department is quoted by The Associated Press as saying. The inmates demanded the removal from the prison of 12 prisoners who belong to so-called First Capital Command, a group that authorities say set off the riots last month that engulfed 30 prisons and left 20 inmates dead, an official said. Those riots began on Feb. 18 with a rebellion at Sao Paulo's Carandiru, Latin America's largest prison complex. To dismantle the First Capital Command, the government has transferred nearly 500 inmates from Carandiru to other facilities in the state. Brazilian authorities acknowledge that neglect, corruption and overcrowding have pushed the nation's prisons to the verge of explosion. Rebellions among the 94,000 inmates in Sao Paulo state are almost a daily occurrence.