“There are prisoners serving sentences for domestic violence because of the scratch card game”, he tells Renaissance the president of the Obra Vicentina de Auxílio ao Recluso (OVAR), Manuel Almeida Santos.
“Scratch cards are contributing to domestic violence”, says the head of OVAR, who detects a “very strong dependence” on this game.
“We have a very strong dependence in Portugal on scratch cards. This is contributing to domestic violence. I know inmates who are serving sentences for cases of domestic violence caused by the lack of money in the family budget, because the addiction to scratch cards takes away money that is needed to pay for water, electricity, house payments, etc…”, he says
“We have been promoting the scratch card, when the scratch card, today, is a social scourge, just as value-added calls on television programs are”, warns the president of OVAR.
Manuel Almeida Santos argues that fighting crime involves, first and foremost, education. “It is not through punishment and repression that the phenomenon can be combated”, he argues.
“The biggest contributor to our prison population is drugs. Drugs must be legally regulated. We have had bad examples of alcohol in the past. It is not resolved through repression and punishment. It’s for education. It is about demonstrating the consequences of all dependencies”, he points out.
On the other hand, the person responsible for the institution that in 2018 was awarded the Human Rights Award from the Assembly of the Republic also declares opposition to the idea that “crime can be prevented through long and repressive sentences”.
“The countries in the world that have longer and more repressive sentences, such as China, the United States and Russia, which even have the death penalty, are the countries where there is the most violent crime. Therefore, there is no direct relationship between a heavy sentence and crime prevention. Crime prevention must be done by attacking the causes of crimes, such as, for example, poverty and drug trafficking”, he maintains.
In favor of pardoning sentences
In these statements to Renaissancethe head of OVAR applauds the recent initiative of Cardinal D. Américo Aguiar who submitted an amnesty proposal for prisoners to Parliament and says he expects the parties to come forward with bills on the issue.
“We think that, given the dimension that this issue has reached, the parties have to present bills on amnesty and pardon of sentences. It is not acceptable that in a country with a Christian tradition like ours, we have the Church explicitly supporting a pardon of sentences, as the bishop of Setúbal, the bishop of Guarda and the bishop of Évora did, and the political power watches to the side”, he points out.
“We expect that this should result in a concrete initiative from the Assembly of the Republic”, he maintains.
In these statements to the RenaissanceManuel Almeida Santos recalls the efforts that OVAR has made in defending amnesty and pardon of sentences and recalls that, on May 8, 2024, the institution delivered a petition to Parliament with more than seven thousand signatures with this request.
This petition should have already been considered in plenary, he argues: “There are legal deadlines for compliance. The Assembly of the Republic is disrespecting a law that it itself approved, which is regrettable.”
“We have prisoners for violating the law. It is not acceptable for the Assembly of the Republic to set a bad example of violating a law made by it”, concludes Manuel Almeida Santos,
Source: rr.sapo.pt
