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Covid-19 in prisons: what telejournalism did (not) show - a study on the newsworthiness criteria regarding the pandemic

Felipe A. Diuana – Diuana, Felipe A.
Grupo de Pesquisa "Saúde nas Prisões" ENSP/CNPq - Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1527-7283
felipeadiuana@yahoo.com.br
Vilma Diuana - Diuana, Vilma
Grupo de Pesquisa "Saúde nas Prisões"ENSP/CNPq - Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7373-3446
vilmadiuana@gmail.com
Patricia Constantino – Constantino, Patricia
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ) /ENSP - Departamento de Estudos sobre Violência e Saúde Jorge Careli (CLAVES)
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5835-0466
patricia.constantino@fiocruz.br
Bernard Larouzé – Larouzé, Bernard
Grupo de Pesquisa "Saúde nas Prisões" ENSP/CNPq - Equipe de Recherche en Epidémiologie Sociale - Paris, Paris - France
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9906-6293
larouzebernard@gmail.com
Alexandra Sanchez - Fundação Oswaldo Cruz - DENSP/Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública / Grupo de Pesquisa "Saúde nas Prisões", ENSP/CNPq - Departamento de Endemias Samuel Pessoa
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5617-1173
alexandra.sanchez@ensp.fiocruz.br

Abstract
In order to analyze the news coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazilian prisons and its visibility, 213 articles broadcast from March to December 2020 were examined. These articles were found in the search service of Globoplay, a video streaming platform. Most of them were aired in March, April and July, presenting an important reduction during the subsequent months. The media reports on numbers of deaths or infections, prevention measures and house arrest or freedom for risk groups for Covid-19 were mainly broadcast in local news. Health agencies were barely heard. From 19 news broadcast nationally, 12 address “notorious prisoners” and the legitimacy of house arrest or freedom for risk groups for Covid-19. The health agendas and the guarantee of the right to health of people deprived of liberty were limited to the difficulties in implementing protection measures in prisons and to sustaining the need of measures to restrict the movement inside prisons and exits to the outside, in order to limit the circulation of the virus. In general, the form and visibility given to the topic did not contribute to expand the viewers\' perception regarding the sanitary conditions in prisons and to the fact that health is a right of all, without any distinction.
Keywords: Covid-19; prisons; health; journalism; media

Introduction
In 2020, a year marked by the global health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the spread of the disease, on an unprecedented scale in recent history, caused disturbance in various contexts that had to deal with the lack of knowledge on the disease and its health and social consequences. In this scenario, this article focuses on the penitentiary system, since the conditions of incarceration and the intense movement of people crossing the walls of prisons favor the transmission of the virus inside and outside prisons. Therefore, “a Covid-19 control strategy that does not encompass the prison context will not be sustainable”1.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has highlighted the high risk of spread of Covid-19 inside prisons, especially in low-and middle-income countries with high rates of imprisonment and inhumane conditions of incarceration, such as Brazil. The overcrowding (average of 170%), incarceration in collective and poorly ventilated cells, poor hygiene conditions and deficiencies of the prison health system “are responsible for significant morbidity among prisoners in the country, with high incidence rates of infectious diseases"2. The need to implement measures for the control of transmission, protection and health care in prisons is highlighted in order to guarantee Persons Deprived of Liberty´s (PDL) right to life and health.
It is important to note that in prisons, “prevention strategies against Covid-19 cannot be limited, as in many states, to the ban on visits, suspension of transfers between units and interruption of group activities”3. It is recommended to adopt legal measures to release prisoners, once “a health response to Covid-19 only in closed environments is insufficient” given that “overcrowding constitutes an insurmountable obstacle to preventing or responding to the disease”4.
However, the recognition to the PDL\'s right to health is not evident, nor is the implementation of public policies that should ensure it. These, as Penteado & Fortunato5 recall, constitute, in practice, fields where different actors (governmental and non-governmental) act, influencing and forcing their realization from different perspectives.
At this time of intense demand for information related to the Covid-19, the mass media stood out in debates about the pandemic as an important non-governmental actor. Amid the proliferation of fake news on social networks, information from traditional journalistic vehicles has gained trust with the public. Television, which seemed to have its prominent place threatened by the advent of social networks, regained its prestige. The time dedicated to journalism on open TV has increased. According to Silva6, Rede Globo dedicated eleven hours of its daily schedule to news reports. The challenge of informing with credibility, given the strategy adopted by the Federal Government, which refused to recognize the severity of the situation, made the presence of specialists, infectiologists and epidemiologists, frequent in the television news in order to inform and analyze the pandemic.
As Miguel7 observes, although media and politics are two distinct fields, they influence each other, especially in the definition of the political agenda. In this field, the visibility of each issue exerts a strong influence on public deliberations related to them. This occurs, according to the author, not only because the citizen gives more importance to the themes that receive greater prominence in the media, but also because the higher visibility puts pressure on the actors of the field to respond to the problem. However, reminds Miguel7, when considering a subject as relevant, the press is not neutral, once it “provides the narrative schemes that allow the interpretation of events”, favoring some aspects in the detriment of others, based on the so-called newsworthiness criteria. This narrative construction itself is influenced, ranging from dependency with regard to the political field, as a source of information and funding resources, to political and economic interests.
This way, understanding that the media can represent a space for public debate regarding the definition and adoption of strategies, as well as acts as an actor capable of interfering in the perception of the issues at stake on the combat to Covid-19 in prisons, this study sought to know how the media coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic was carried out with regard to the Brazilian penitentiary system and the visibility given to the theme.
It is worth mentioning that despite of the relevance of the theme, no research related to this subject has been found thus far, which is essential to know the meanings attributed to the demands of this vulnerable and marginal population in the narratives of Brazilian TV news.

Methodology
The research, largely carried out in parallel with the events, covers the videos aired during the year 2020 by Rede Globo. These video were obtained from the search service of the free streaming video platform Globoplay, which provides excerpts and articles from programs and news of the aforementioned platform, previously broadcast on open television. This television network was chosen for being the only with an online and free platform that allows the research of article broadcast, both on its main channels and on its affiliates throughout the country.
On this platform, the search for articles is limited to the title of each video. The search terms “covid” and “coronavirus” were used in association with five selected terms or keywords: “prison”, “penitentiary”, “CNJ” (acronym for “National Justice Council” in Portuguese), “house arrest” and “custody hearing”.
The material found was then divided by TV news broadcast, coverage (local or national), the state or federative unit to which the article was broadcast and the time of the TV news in which it was shown. Likewise, the date of each article, as well as the title, URL (e-mail address) and duration of the video were listed. It was also analyzed whether each report had an interviewee or analyst, commentator or consultant specialized on the topic.
Finally, based on the frequency of the themes, eight categories were selected to classify the articles. An article, for example, can fit into more than one category: 1) "House arrest or freedom for risk group of Covid-19", 2) "House arrest for having Covid-19 and disobeying preventive measures", 3) "Number of deaths and/or people infected in prisons", 4) "Testing of prison population", 5) "Request for interdiction of prison due to Covid-19 risks ", 6) "Prevention measures against Covid-19 in prisons", 7) "Report of overcrowding and/or negligence in preventive measures" and 8) "Escape of inmates with symptoms or cases of Covid-19". Identical articles, with the same URL, found by more than one combination of keywords were listed just once, as well as videos catalogued in different electronic addresses, but with the same content. In the case of repeated articles broadcast on different TV news, no results were discarded, thus considering all the articles found. At last, articles not related to the topic addressed were discarded.
Once the first known cases of Covid-19 emerged in Brazil at the end of February 2020, the first articles found about Covid-19 in prisons are dated from March 2020 and the searches extend until the end of December of the same year.
Understanding journalistic materials as discourses that have materiality, being, “at the same time, a communication process and social practice”8 and considering that, far from simple representations of facts, news express a system of beliefs, values, interests and power relations within a given field, we sought to identify: a) visibility and appreciation by the news with regard to the magnitude of the Covid-19 problem in prisons, b) information, debate and evaluation of the measures adopted by the authorities to contain the spread of the virus and to treat infected prisoners, c) institutions recognized as relevant to give opinions in this field and the values they convey.
This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the National School of Public Health/Fiocruz (4.168.197 from 07/22/2020).

Results and discussion
Altogether, 276 reports broadcast between March and December 2020 on Rede Globo and its affiliated were identified. Of these, 43 duplicate articles were discarded, as well as 20 that were not related to the theme addressed. Thus, 213 reports were analyzed. The searches that obtained more results used the combined terms “covid” and “prison” (96 articles), and “coronavirus” and “prison” (54).

Temporal and thematic distribution of articles: from initial visibility to nearly disappearance
Upon analyzing the temporal distribution of these articles from the first result found, on March 16th, it can be seen that the periods with the greatest amount of news about Covid-19 in Brazilian prisons were March, April and July (Figure 1).
In the first two months investigated, Rede Globo (including its affiliates) aired a total of 87 articles related the subject: 45 in March and 42 in April. Most of the reports in this period were included in the themes “House arrest or freedom for members of risk groups of Covid-19” and/or “Prevention measures against Covid-19 in prisons”, such as ban of visits or sanitization of prison environments. These news express health concerns with the spread of the coronavirus inside prisons and its expansion outside them and they refer to two large groups of measures that were adopted to prevent the transmission among the prison population. On one hand, the release measures, of a legal nature, supported by CNJ Recommendation No 62 (March 17th, 2020), which recommended that the magistrates consider, in their decisions, the reassessment of provisional prisons, the anticipation of the sentence reduction for prisoners included in risk groups of Covid-19, and that, in some cases, could opt for house arrest. On the other hand, the measures restricting activities and the movement of people and materials inside prisons, among them and the outside, measures of administrative nature adopted by the prison systems of each state and by the National Penitentiary Department (DEPEN) with regard to the federal penitentiary system9.
In July 2020, Brazil was experiencing a peak of the pandemic, recording more than 32,000 deaths (the highest number in a single month in 2020) and about 126,000 cases of the disease (in the year, only behind December), according to the Ministry of Health10. During this period, Covid-19 was also spreading among the Brazilian prison population. According to the CNJ11, from March to July, 11,269 cases had already been reported among the PDL, with 74 deaths, which could justify the 43 articles found in July, most of them included in the theme “Numbers of dead and/or infected in prisons”.
However, it was observed that, in October and December, one single article was broadcast on the network\'s TV news. This, despite official data from the CNJ indicating that, as of August, the growth in total number of cases among prisoners has remained stable and despite the fact that, in the last month of the year, approximately 3,500 cases of Covid-19 were reported in the Brazilian prisons, with five deaths. The near absence of news regarding Covid-19 in prisons in these months at the end of the year, may reflect the trivialization of the topic, which became neglected by the media, as is the case of highly endemic diseases in prisons such as, for example, tuberculosis and, in general, of health and living conditions of the PDL.
It is also possible to see which subjects, within the broader theme involving the situation of Covid-19 in prisons, generated the greatest number of news (Figure 2). First of all, 105 reports addressed the issue of the number of deaths or sick people in prisons, whether among PDL and employees. Second, 90 reports found dealt with preventive measures in prisons, either when addressing the ban on visits or other internal measures to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. The third most frequent topic deals with requests or grants of house arrest for inmates included in risk groups of Covid-19, most of them treating the subject in a general and quantitative way or disclosing some prominent case, the so-called “notorious prisoners”.
A small number of reports went beyond the official information disclosed by the advisory services of the prison units, and the cold data regarding the number of cases or total number of prisoners under the house arrest regime. Despite of the widely known sanitary conditions in which the approximately 800,000 Brazilian prisoners live, the limited offer of prevention and health care actions, and the overcrowding of Brazilian prisons, with actual complaints, including, to the UN and the Organization of American States (OAS)12 against the management of Covid-19 in Brazilian prisons, only 19 reports showed complaints, with numerical data regarding overcrowding and/or negligence in the adoption of measures to prevent Covid-19 inside prisons.
The testing of the prison population and prison staff was also an issue found in 37 articles. Most of the news referred to tests carried out after a first suspected case which motivated the examination of others PDL, without questioning the effectiveness of the prevention measures, after the discovery of the cases.
Only 9 of the reports found addressed requests of prison interdiction (with ban on the entry of new inmates) due to the risk of Covid-19; 5 of them narrated a case where an individual was sentenced to house arrest for having Covid-19 and disobeying preventive measures; and a single article addressed a case of escape of inmates presenting symptoms of Covid-19 or diagnosed with it in a prison in Aracaju, Sergipe state. It is worth mentioning that, when adding up the total number of news per theme, the result found is greater than the total number of videos collected, once in several reports it was possible to identify more than one subject.

Territorial scope: dealt only in the region, few news become national.
When examining the coverage of the TV news in which the articles related to Covid-19 in prisons were broadcast, it is clear that the subject was very little addressed at a national level - in fact, only five of the 213 reports analyzed were shown in Jornal Nacional, the main news program of Rede Globo. Considering all the TV news broadcast throughout the whole country, only 19 articles can be found.
In local TV news, 194 videos about Covid-19 in prisons were found. We observed that it was through these local reports that most of the news that addressed the conditions of the prison units, or the number of inmates infected by Covid-19, were transmitted. These local TV news became responsible, almost exclusively, for broadcasting information about Covid-19 in prisons and prison populations in their region, leaving very few situations to the national TV news, most of them involving “notorious” presos, as it will be analyzed later. From 194 articles broadcast locally, 112 were shown on the news in the states of the southeastern region, where
a third of Brazilian prisons and about 52% of the country\'s prison population are concentrated13. In this region, Minas Gerais and São Paulo lead the list, with 35 and 21 articles, respectively, and Espírito Santo, with 12 articles. However, even if the presence of prisons and the prison population in these states could be considered as a relevant factor for the higher number of articles about Covid-19 in their local news, it is not enough to explain the (in)visibility of the topic in the news of Rio de Janeiro state (prison population around 48,000 people), which broadcast only nine articles on their local TV news between March and December 2020 (Figure 3).
What was broadcast nationally?
Among the 19 news broadcast throughout Brazil by TV Globo and its affiliates in 2020 (Table 1), 12 address the issue of house arrest or freedom for risk groups of Covid-19 and only 4 addressed the topic of the number of deaths and/or people infected in prisons (only one addressing the national scenario as a whole). Three reports cover preventive measures in prison units, while one deals with a request for a ban on new admissions to the prisons, and another single report makes a complaint about overcrowding or negligence in the prevention and care of patients with Covid-19 in prisons.
From these data, it can already be seen that the most prominent subjects in TV Globo\'s national news programs were the concessions, requests and denials of house arrest, which dominated the news broadcast throughout the country - especially when the inmate concerned was a public or notorious figure. This point becomes clearer when we observe that, after a new recommendation by the CNJ14 on the issue, no news on the topic were found on national TV news, as analyzed below.

National coverage: focus on the release of “notorious prisoners” in detriment of the right to health of other prisoners
In this section, the articles broadcast on national TV news will be analyzed in more detail, in order to understand what information related to Covid-19 in prisons was broadcast throughout the country in 2020.
Significantly, on March 17th, the report about “escapes, riots and disorders in five prisons in São Paulo” was the first to gain space on a national TV news program. In the words of the anchor of the TV news, when announcing the material, “everything happened after the suspension by State Government of the temporary exit from the semi-open regime due of the new coronavirus”. In front of the penitentiary in Mongaguá, city in the São Paulo coast, a reporter mentions that 577 prisoners escaped through the front door, 176 were recaptured and 400 were still at large. She reports that the rebellion lasted four hours, eight prison officers were taken hostage, and that the prison unit with capacity for 1,700 PDL accommodates 2,800 PDL, also informing that inmates\' relatives denounced the conditions of incarceration, including lack of water and food. The report is illustrated with images of many prisoners on the run, leaving by the front door of one of the prisons, in addition to recaptured prisoners being taken back by the police, with security vans and helicopter in action. The journalist also informs that the local city hall had determined that “due to security issues, classes are suspended” and asked “for people to stay at home”. This scenario sets the tone for the report that follows with the narration of riots in other prisons, while images of a fire in a sugarcane field allegedly set by escaped prisoners are depicted.
Coincidentally, these images that reinforce the stigma of violence marking the prison population and the danger that they represent for the general population, were released on the same day that the National Council of Justice (CNJ) published the aforementioned Resolution No. 62, which provided for the consideration of magistrates regarding the reassessment of provisional prisons, as well as the reduction of prison sentence for inmates included in the risk group of Covid-19, and in some cases, the house arrest. According to this Resolution, such recommendations should benefit provisional prisoners, people who committed crimes without violence, and prisoners included in the risk groups of Covid-19, as follows: elderly, people with chronic diseases, immunosuppression, respiratory diseases and other comorbidities.
On the same day, local reports highlighted the recommendations to judges made by State Courts regarding the adoption of house arrest regime for inmates included in risk groups of Covid-19. In some TV Globo affiliates, such as in Minas Gerais, a specialist in criminal science was called in to explain the importance of the measure. He based his explanation on the overcrowding of prisons, public health emergency in this state and on the need to protect the health of prisoners, family members, justice officers and lawyers. In addition, he informed that prisoners being admitted to the system should be isolated in entry units for a period of 15 days before entering the system. In another TV network, located in the state of Santa Catarina, these measures were presented and discussed by a NSC columnist, who justified them based on “a national concern” (sic) with riots in São Paulo prisons that would have been motivated by the restrictions imposed as measures to prevent Covid-19 in prisons. In this sense, the measures determined in the aforementioned resolution would be aimed at mitigating the risks of rebellions and escapes. This report, which ends with the news anchor pointing out the need for “care above all”, highlights the danger that involves the prison system and the people deprived of their liberty. Thus, in local TV news, depending on the guest commentator, the Resolution was interpreted primarily as a measure to reduce prison overcrowding and to address the public health emergency caused by the pandemic or prevent rebellions caused by the restrictive measures adopted in prisons.
The continuity of national coverage of Covid-19 in the prison system elapses between news of concessions, requests and denials for house arrest, especially when the inmate concerned is a public or notorious figure, convicted of sexual crimes or corruption. These are crimes that cause intense repudiation and social disapproval and generate affects that, by contiguity, impact on the measures which sustain the release from prison.
The only report aired by Rede Globo at a national level presenting a complaint about the situation of Brazilian prisons amidst the pandemic was aired on April 22, in the program “Combat to Coronavirus”. In this report, numbers and details of the situation of prisons in Rio de Janeiro state were shown, after the first official record of a death by Covid-19 in a prison unit in the state, pointing out that another 14 deaths did not enter the official records, despite being related to the disease, according to the State Mechanism for the Prevention and Combat of Torture, an agency linked to the Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio de Janeiro. In this report, the representative of the Mechanism also denounced the irregularity of an ordinance, published on March 20th, 2020, by the State Department of Penitentiary Administration (SEAP) and the Civil Police, which suspended the necropsy in inmates who died by natural causes in Rio de Janeiro state. The report, which also includes the comments of a State Public Defender, clarifies that, without necropsy, it is impossible to know the reason of the deaths and consequently, it is impossible to assess the impact of the new coronavirus on prisons. The transmissibility of the virus in a prison environment is also addressed in a brief interview with a researcher from Fiocruz, who warns about the problem in view of overcrowding and incarceration conditions in the state. Before the article was aired, the presenter announced that, according to data at the time, at least 60 people had contracted the disease in Brazilian prisons, with 154 suspected cases and two deaths.
On the same day, April 22nd, still in the program “Combat to Coronavirus”, which was elucidating the difficulties of combating the disease in prisons, the presenter compares the situation in such establishments with long-stay institutions for the elderly, in order to highlight the difficulty of implementing the isolation of sick people, the problems of suspending visitation and transit inside and outside prisons, questioning the qualification and health protection of prison workers.
Also in April, a report broadcast in “Hora 1” highlighted the situation in Ceará after the state record the first death of an inmate due to the coronavirus. The news informs that, before being sent to the health unit where he died, the inmate had contact with other inmates, and reports that the Secretariat of Penitentiary Administration informed that the ward where he staid was isolated and no other inmate had presented symptoms. The report does not mention whether tests were carried out to detect the disease among those who had contact with the inmate.
The issue only returned to the national agenda on July 9th, with a 24-second short piece without images on the morning news “Bom Dia Brasil” regarding the advance of the coronavirus in Minas Gerais state prisons. The journalist reported that 324 inmates tested positive, and 159 were from the same prison, which represented 80% of the entire prison population of that unit. It also informs that a 28-year-old prisoner died of the disease. Although emphasizing, with the gesture, compassion for that death, no question was asked about the mass contamination that occurred in that prison.
The following day, the Jornal Nacional reported that a group of lawyers from the human rights advocacy collective asked the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) to grant house arrest to “all prisoners in Brazil” belonging to risk groups of Covid-19. The news\' anchor points out that, in order to substantiate their request, the lawyers argued that those arrested in such circumstances should also have the same benefits granted to a former parliamentary advisor and his wife, who were also under arrest. It is up to the journalist to point out that, in the proposed action, the lawyers listed a series of court decisions rejecting requests in cases of prisoners with cancer, hepatitis C, diabetes and hypertension, which put them at greater risk of worsening Covid-19, leaving a glimpse to the difference in treatment given to “ordinary” prisoners and to the “notorious” ones.
After this article, the news about the granting of house arrest regime to “notorious prisoners” returned, being interrupted on July 22nd, when, in “Jornal Hoje”, was aired a two-and-a-half-minute story, with interviewees, about the temporary interdiction of the Porto Alegre Public Prison, the largest prison in Rio Grande do Sul. This measure, taken by decision of the Criminal Executions Court of Porto Alegre due to the high number of cases infected with the coronavirus, in addition to prohibiting the admission of new prisoners, also limited internal circulation. The report, which shows images of cell bars and prisoners\' hands hanging outside, indicating the overcrowding, informs that there are 4160 people in that prison, however its capacity is only for 1800 prisoners, and adds that, according to the direction, 3 inmates tested positive and 10 were isolated presenting symptoms of the Covid-19. The report also features a judge of the aforementioned Criminal Executions Court, who informs that the prisoners “are being isolated as their symptoms appear”, because the virus had already spread in other galleries. In this sense, she understands that the only solution would be “to close for 15 days, which would be the period of a quarantine, in order to investigate how many people are contaminated and to know how to act”. The news goes on saying that the interdiction is also intended to avoid an even greater pressure on the state\'s hospitals, which are overcrowded. It is worth mentioning that despite pointing out the serious condition of overcrowding in the prison and the risk of exposure to the disease in which PDL are in that establishment, the application of release measures was not brought to the scene as a manner to face the problem. The discourse, validated by the legal speech, adheres to the aforementioned statement of “closing for 15 days, (...) to know how to act”.
Only a month after this story, the topic of Covid-19 in prisons reappears on national television journals, bringing the news regarding the revocation of the granting of house arrest and the consequent return to jail of a former doctor convicted of sexual crimes during the practice of medicine.
The last national story broadcast on TV Globo, in 2020, on the topic of the pandemic in prisons took place on September 15th, one day after the changes made by Minister Luiz Fux14 in the CNJ Resolution Nº 62. On that day, Jornal Nacional reported that “in practice, the change of Minister Fux makes it clear that benefits, such as the reassessment of provisional detention and the granting of house arrest regime, cannot be applied to those convicted of criminal organization, money laundering, corruption, domestic violence and heinous crimes”. This report, which was aired again on the following day by the anchor of the “Hora 1”, with the same text, puts an end on the list of news broadcast nationally on TV Globo\'s news about Covid-19 in prisons.
Thus, it can be seen that, with few exceptions, information on “ordinary” prisoners only reached the national news in situations involving rebellions and violence or, at most, as people who had their rights denied in contrast to those notorious prisoners to whom all rights are guaranteed. A statement that can lead both to interpretations based on notions such as equality and social justice, but also to sustain punitive interpretations of exclusion of rights and maintenance of custodial sentences, regardless of the conditions of vulnerability to which these populations are exposed.
In general, it is observed that, despite the pandemic that devastates the country and the number of people infected and deaths due to Covid-19 in Brazilian prisons, the health guidelines and guarantee of the right to life and health of the PDL did not become a subject brought to the attention of the Brazilian audience, but a debate involving, on one hand, the prison as a space of social risk and, on the other hand, the application of release measures, treated as a privilege for a few or as a factor of insecurity for the general population due to the risk of releasing “dangerous prisoners”. The press echoed, without discussing, the existing tensions between the right to health, understood as a right of all, without any distinction, and certain conceptions of security, based on segregation and mass incarceration as a way of ensuring public safety.

Final considerations
This study provided a detailed observation regarding the coverage of television press related to the Covid-19 pandemic in the Brazilian penitentiary system. The material collected does not intend to portray the totality of news broadcast on TV Globo regarding the theme: there is no guarantee that all videos are published on the Globoplay platform. In addition, some articles may not have been found, once their title do not contain the keywords researched. However, we believe that our study provides an adequate assessment regarding the stories on the subject aired by the TV station, their contents and the repercussion of Covid-19 in Brazilian prisons.
It is noteworthy that the articles related to this topic gained more space in local TV news than in national news, a “regionalization” that contributed to release the health situation in prisons from the actions and decisions taken at a national level. Treated in a regional way, such news might remove the perception that health policies and incarceration policies are, in fact, articulated at the intersection of the three powers and the three spheres of government, in addition to involving important civil society organizations, including the academics, becoming, therefore, a theme of national interest.
Another relevant point is the verification that, in the analyzed news, there were almost no references to the health status of PDL with Covid-19, nor to the conditions or quality of care provided to them. In the stories about mortality among PDL, only the number of deaths was reported, and the information provided by the prison administrations repeated that there were no cases of other prisoners with symptoms, or that the detected cases were isolated.
There were no references to the importance of testing for the diagnosis and control of transmission, nor to the need for vaccination of the prison population, a vital issue as an “instrument for reversing health inequities”15 for especially vulnerable populations such as the prison population.
References to protective measures, although important, were limited to reassuring the difficulties regarding its execution in the penitentiary context and sustaining the need for restrictive measures to the internal movement and entry of new prisoners, in addition to the suspension or limitation of movement with the premises outside the prison, showing that they were measures that sought to avoid, mainly, the spread of the virus from prisons and the pressure on the health network outside the walls.
It was observed that, to address the issue, the health community was almost absent in the debate, since the sources of the news were, in its majority, official information disclosed by the penitentiary administration advisory or by criminal justice channels. Also, there was no repercussion in the media regarding the actions and achievements of social movements in favor of the health of PDL. Thus, their absence or the low visibility given to their participation, limited the discussion of the problem to actors in the field of justice and criminal system, not favoring the perception, by the population, that the maintenance of the health of PDL, in addition to being a right for them, is also essential to guarantee collective health. In Brazil, since 2014, the health in prisons has been governed by the National Policy for Comprehensive Health Care for Persons Deprived of Liberty (PNAISP)16 which aims to guarantee the right to health and access of PDL to the Unified Health System (SUS).
Finally, it is important to highlight that, by focusing the debate on granting the legal release of “notorious prisoners” and on the injustice of their favoritism, the discourse strengthens the perception that, if these privileged people remain in prison, the “justice is made”, leaving the reflection on where is the justice that imposes isolation without care and without rights to anonymous people deprived of liberty in the dark.

Contributions

All authors (FD, VD, PC, BL, AS) contributed equally in the conception, design, analysis and elaboration of the manuscript.

Financing

Programa INOVA, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ) - Geração de Conhecimento - Enfrentamento da Pandemia e Pós-pandemia Covid-19: Encomendas Estratégicas 2020.

References
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