One cannot understand public security policies in Brazil and elsewhere without taking into account organized crime in drug trafficking. The prison was the place where it started as factions for protecting prisoners from their assailants and profiteers but soon discovered that drug dealers were making a lot of money outside. Prisons are not closed systems; on the contrary, they are porous, therefore prisoners started to charge traffickers for the protection they could be offered when arrested. So, outside and inside the jail, one of the biggest drains for drug dealers was, and may still be, the bribes paid to policemen, making money in the illegal business and fixing the payoff. There is a continuous string of strategic games wherein many partners intermediaries, and opponents participate in order to avoid detention. The narratives are endless, and the negotiations with policemen linger on unpredictably, with retail dealers spending most of their time negotiating and paying dearly for the freedom of themselves and their partners. There are also debates within the criminal factions about fees but also other forms of gifts so that one stays alive when arrested. It is this chain of interactions that finally binds them more and more to the rules of negative reciprocity based on blackmail and threats that criminal factions employ, but nevertheless the only possibility of some protection if sent to a prison where they can die for nothing. It is what in game theory is called "endless repetition of interactions," in which the partners learn how to act cooperating to keep the organization strong.
Yet, it is necessary to examine the differences between these realms, that of the exchanges between drug dealers and policemen, that of the dealings between faction members and members to be. As long as the institutional players in these games do not agree to the rule of law, those involved in the world of crime will not realize that there are no risk-free exits. These will continue to go around the law to deal with corruption and the war between them and the police. We already know that what explains crime and violence is not poverty, it is the opposition to the democratic state of law. Therefore, it is not a matter of defending human rights because they represent the good. It must be shown that there are alternatives to guarantee the right to life, to work, to a just sentence of the accused. And, if condemned, a dignified life without death threats at every instant in prison.
