Jailed Brazil gangsters chat on cell phones daily

Sao Paulo state Penitentiary Administration Secretary Nagashi Furukawa acknowledged this week that the state has problems controlling the flow of cellular phones into prisons.

Phones are delivered to prisoners by visiting relatives, corrupt prison officials or inside service trucks.

On Wednesday, the authorities ordered mobile phone operating companies to cut the signal in six state prisons.

According to the Pastoral Carceraria human rights group, the PCC controls practically all the 140 penitentiaries in Brazil's biggest state.

The PCC watches over low-income families of its members, the two women said.

"They give medicines to those who need medicines. Many things that people need and the government doesn't do, they do. They even pay for funerals," said the younger woman, whose husband is serving a 13-year sentence for robbery and murder.

It also helped out with food baskets and provided buses to take relatives to prison visits, she said.

They said the PCC wanted to improve general prison conditions when it ordered the attacks.

"It doesn't want things to get worse, doesn't want turmoil or the end of the world," the younger woman said.