States such as Goiás and Ceará have adopted the practice of monitoring conversations involving leaders of criminal factions in visitation rooms at selected state prisons. This measure, authorized under the Raul Jungmann Law, also known as the Anti-Faction Law, is expected to be expanded by the Lula administration. The recordings have enabled security forces to identify orders for murders, extortion, and other crimes issued by leaders who continue to exercise influence from within prison facilities, directly affecting public safety outside the prison system.
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Visitation Rooms
Visitation rooms are designated areas within prisons where inmates may communicate with visitors, including lawyers and family members. These spaces generally allow communication without direct physical contact and operate under specific security protocols. Under the Raul Jungmann Law, enacted in March 2026, conversations held in visitation rooms or through videoconferencing between members of factions, militias, or paramilitary groups and their visitors may be monitored at the request of the police, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, or prison authorities. However, when the conversation takes place between a lawyer and a client, recording requires judicial authorization and evidence indicating that the legal professional may be collaborating with the criminal organization.
Ceará
In Ceará, monitoring began in November 2025 at the maximum-security prison within the Aquiraz Penitentiary Complex, located in the Fortaleza metropolitan area. The intercepted conversations provided evidence for investigations that culminated in June of this year in Operation Messengers of Crime, conducted by the Ceará Public Prosecutor’s Office. Arrest warrants were executed against 12 lawyers suspected of acting as intermediaries for criminal organizations. According to Prosecutor Oscar Stefano, coordinator of Ceará’s GAECO, the Special Action Group for Combating Criminal Organizations, faction members were exploiting the privilege of unlimited legal visits to use lawyers as messengers. The prosecutor stated that some of these professionals also participated in recruiting members of rival factions into the Red Command and, in certain cases, received approximately R$ 500 per visit.
Faction Growth
This practice contributed to the strengthening of the faction in Ceará, where it currently exerts influence over approximately 85% to 90% of the state’s territory. Its expansion intensified from mid-2025 onward, driven by the migration of members and leaders from rival groups such as Guardiões do Estado and Massa Carcerária.
Maximum Security
Monitoring is limited to the 118 inmates held in the maximum-security unit who are identified by intelligence services as leaders of criminal organizations. The targets are individuals whose leadership roles, level of threat to society, and links to organized crime have already been established.
Goiás
The Ceará initiative was based on the system introduced in Goiás, where monitoring in attorney-client meeting rooms began in 2020. According to Josimar Pires Nicolau do Nascimento, Director-General of the Goiás Penal Police, the system operates in two maximum-security facilities, one in Goiânia and another in Planaltina. Together, the units have capacity for 390 inmates and currently hold fewer than 150. The surveillance system has also supported major investigations. In 2022, the Goiás Civil Police launched Operation Gravatas and arrested 16 lawyers suspected of belonging to or collaborating with criminal organizations.
Model Implementation
The objective is to strengthen security standards and introduce monitoring in visitation rooms across 138 prison facilities in every Brazilian state, where leaders of criminal factions are expected to be concentrated. The federal government will provide technology, infrastructure, and training, while state authorities will be responsible for the operational implementation of the measure. The monitoring will focus on inmates who occupy leadership positions and have proven connections to criminal factions. The strategy seeks to isolate the estimated 1% to 3% of the prison population that effectively commands criminal operations.
Analysis:
One of the greatest challenges facing Brazil’s public security system is the ability of criminal organizations to maintain operational control even after their leaders have been incarcerated. This reality has led authorities to prioritize strategies aimed not only at imprisoning high-ranking criminals but also at disrupting the communication networks that allow them to continue coordinating illegal activities from within the prison system. In this context, monitored visitation rooms represent an effort to weaken the internal command structures that sustain organized crime beyond prison walls.
The experiences of Goiás and Ceará suggest that intelligence gathered from monitored communications can generate significant operational results. The identification of alleged intermediaries, including legal professionals suspected of collaborating with criminal organizations, illustrates how factions adapt by exploiting legitimate institutional channels to maintain communication with members outside prison. At the same time, the legal safeguards established by the Anti-Faction Law, particularly the requirement for judicial authorization when monitoring attorney-client communications under specific circumstances, are intended to balance public security objectives with constitutional guarantees and professional legal protections.
Sources: A Folha de SP.
