Brazil prison gang calls 'truce'

The weekend uprising was the biggest of its kind

A notorious gang that used mobile phones to incite the biggest prison riot in Brazilian history has offered to suspend revolts for 90 days, according to a judge who has been acting as an intermediary.

Judge Octavio Augusto Machado de Barros said members of the gang, known as the First Commando of the Capital (PCC) would end the violence in return for a transfer of some prisoners.

But the authorities in the state of Sao Paulo, where most of the riots have happened, have refused to negotiate with inmates.

On Thursday, there was another riot at a Sao Paulo prison, only days after the massive revolt at 29 jails left 19 inmates dead.

More than 250 inmates at the prison of Sao Jose do Rio Preto about 400 km west of the city of Sao Paulo, took a guard hostage and threatened to set the jail on fire before police restored order.

The unrest has sparked calls for prison reform

The prison's capacity is 230 inmates, but it actually has 410 inmates. Like many Brazilian jails it is crammed with nearly twice the number of men.

Sao Paulo's state government has tightened security prisons this week.

No visits

Police have been called in to quell riots

The head of the prison administration, Nagashi Furukawa, said visits would not be allowed at jails that were damaged by rioting.

As news of the ban on visits spread, prison authorities were bombarded by letters from inmates across the state, media reports said on Thursday.

The weekend uprising was orchestrated from Carandiru, Latin America's largest jail, and was the biggest of its kind in Brazil.

The mounting unrest has sparked renewed calls for prison reform.

Extra funding

One of the Brazilian prison guards' unions, the State Correction Workers Union, has warned that prisoners are preparing more uprisings on a still bigger scale.

Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso has promised to increase federal funding from $4.5m last year to $33m this year.

But despite his promises of more money to build new prisons, many observers doubt whether the extra funding will solve the two main problems of overcrowding and corruption.

There are presently about 200,000 inmates in a system built to hold fewer than half that number.