At least 75 inmates have died in the Pedrinhas Prison complex since 2013, including three inmates beheaded in disturbances, despite the presence of heavily armed military police.
Brazil's prisons are massively overcrowded and the gang culture on the streets transfers easily to the jails.
At one point, prison gangs inside the complex in Sao Luis in the north-eastern Maranhao state left 10 dead and 30 injured in a violent uprising.
Rioting then broke out between rival factions and spilled out into the city centre where marauding supporters torched seven buses and besieged the local hospital.
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Brazil has the fourth-largest prison population in the world behind the Russia, the US and China.
The number of prisoners has quadrupled in the past twenty years to around 550,000 and the country needs at least 200,000 new spaces to eliminate overcrowding.
A vast increase in minor drug arrests, a lack of legal advice for criminals and a lack of political will for new prisons have contributed to the increases and the overcrowding.
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Efforts from a new state administration, prison officials and leading judges from the state have had a calming effect on Pedrinhas.
Much of the violence stemmed from damaged cells which allowed inmates from rival gangs to mix in the prison's open spaces.
Officials have recently repaired and repopulated the cells which allows the military police guarding the facility to move more freely.
Other reforms include a policy of custody hearings and real-time camera feeds.
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