Brazil to support efficiency and efficacy of public safety and justice

• IDB approves US$1.2 billion conditional credit line for the PRO-SEGURANÇA program

• Espírito Santo is the first Brazilian state to benefit from the program, receiving a US$82.3 million credit

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a credit line of up to $1.2 billion to help Brazil boost the efficiency and efficacy of its public safety and justice programs.

The financing consists of a conditional credit line for investment projects (CCLIP) that will be made available through three resource-allocation channels: federal government agencies, subnational governments (state or municipal), and national or regional development banks.

The CCLIP will provide Brazil with a strategic tool to strengthen the Single Public Safety System, promoting integration and alignment of safety policies among the three levels of governments –federal, states, and municipal– and the implementation of the multisector approach of the 2018-2028 Public Safety and Social Defense National Plan. The credit line will focus on four areas: public safety management and governance; violence prevention; police modernization; and justice and social reinsertion.

Espírito Santo is the first state to benefit from a CCLIP loan of $82.3 million, which will be used to support the Program for the Modernization and Enhancement of the Espírito Santo Penitentiary System (MODERNIZA-ES). The program will contribute to social reinsertion and crime recidivism reduction in an effective and efficient way. It aims to boost the use of social reinsertion policies and evidence-based programs; and increase spending efficiency through the use of new management and monitoring technologies and the improvement of penitentiary infrastructure for social reinsertion.

The Espírito Santo program will benefit all 23,000 inmates in the state by improving penitentiaries’ technology and infrastructure management. It will also help other specific segments of the population by providing social reinsertion services, which will include individual recidivism risk assessments, alternative correctional facilities, cognitive-behavioral treatment programs, establishment of work cooperatives, technical assistance, and seed capital for ventures, among other benefits.

The IDB’s CCLIP lending has a 25-year repayment term, with a 5.5-year grace period and an interest rate based on LIBOR. The Espírito Santo State will provide an additional $20,582,300 in local counterpart funds.