The Sentencing Bill reduces the time required for sentence progression for some common criminals, according to legal experts consulted by Agência Brasil . The text was approved in the Chamber of Deputies to benefit those convicted in connection with the attempted coup d’état that culminated on January 8, 2023, including former president Jair Bolsonaro. 
Rodrigo Azevedo, a law professor at PUC in Rio Grande do Sul (RS), points out that the change “significantly” reduces the percentages of sentence served required for progression compared to the model in place since 2019, especially for common non-violent crimes.
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“In practice, it does benefit common criminals, as it standardizes the basic progression threshold at one-sixth of the sentence, reserving higher percentages only for violent and heinous crimes. This represents a significant loosening compared to the current system, which requires 20% for first-time offenders and 30% for repeat offenders, even in non-violent crimes,” said the expert.
João Vicente Tinoco, a law professor at PUC-Rio and a criminal lawyer, also told Agência Brasil that the change should benefit those convicted of certain types of crimes.
“When the anti-crime legislation came into effect in 2019, the situation for prisoners worsened. What the Sentencing Bill does now is take a step back. It doesn’t completely revert [to the text before 2019], but it takes a step back in relation to some of the provisions,” he said.
According to the rapporteur, Congressman Paulinho da Força (Solidariedade-SP), the bill was developed with the support of legal experts to prevent common criminals from benefiting from it.
“There is no possibility that this text will benefit common crime. It only deals with January 8th. The leading jurists in this country, the most renowned, have made their decision: this text does not deal with common crime,” he said during the session that approved the matter in the Chamber.
Law professor Rodrigo Azevedo, who is also a member of the Brazilian Forum on Public Security, states that the rapporteur’s argument is unsustainable.
“The Penal Execution Law [Law 7.210 of 1984] is a general law that governs how sentences are served for all convicted persons in the country. There is no concept in the Brazilian constitutional system of a penal execution law applicable only to a specific group of convicts,” states the expert.
Azevedo added that currently, someone convicted of robbery only progresses to a less restrictive prison regime after serving 40% of their sentence, but that “with the approved text, if it’s their first offense, they could progress after 25%, showing that the change directly affects common crimes and not just the cases of January 8th.”
Understand
The text of Bill 2,162 of 2023 allows prisoners to move from closed to semi-open prison regimes, or from semi-open to open regimes, when they have served one-sixth of their sentence, which represents 16% of the total sentence time.
Currently, progression after serving 16% of the sentence is only for first-time offenders in non-violent crimes, and can reach 70% of the sentence if the offender is a repeat offender in a heinous crime.
The Sentencing Bill is innovative in allowing those convicted of crimes involving violence or serious threats, such as attempted coups d’état, to benefit from a lower progression of 16%.
At the same time, the bill includes a number of exceptions to this main rule, increasing the sentence length according to the type of offense.
If the conviction is for crimes stipulated in Titles 1 and 2 of the Penal Code, which are crimes against persons and against property, for example, the minimum time for progression to a less restrictive prison regime is 25%.
Criminal lawyer João Vicente Tinoco explained that there are other crimes, committed with violence, that are not included in those sections of the Penal Code.
“The problem is that there are a number of other crimes that are not covered in Titles 1 and 2 of the Penal Code and that are committed with serious violence and threats, and in these cases the prisoners will benefit,” he said.
João Vicente states that changing legislation to accommodate a specific case generates distortions that are difficult to calculate.
“It’s always very delicate when the legislator decides to modify the law, which applies to everyone, thinking about a specific case or benefiting a specific person, because this potentially generates distortions,” he added.
According to Professor Rodrigo Azevado, from PUC-RS, the Sentencing Bill contradicts the Anti-Faction Bill, approved in the Chamber of Deputies, which toughens the rules for parole for members of factions or militias.
“Approving contradictory projects only weakens the Unified Public Security System (Susp), generates uncertainty for judges and penal execution operators, and hinders the formulation of stable and effective public security policies,” he concluded.
The Sentencing Bill is to be analyzed by the Senate’s Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) next Wednesday (17), under the rapporteurship of Senator Esperidião Amim (PP-SC), an ally of former President Jair Bolsonaro who defends total amnesty for those convicted of attempted coup d’état.
