The Director Captain Isaías has returned from Rio de Janeiro. I go visit him at his house in the middle of the village. The colonial style building is the only residence of two stories in town. The villa has a separate cottage in the back for the maids and is surrounded by a garden which faces the beach. Some prisoners are working there cleaning the garden, plastering the walls, and painting the fences.

The inmates who perform tasks outside the prison are usually selected by the C.V. leaders, who know better than the penitentiary administrators which inmates, once outside the walls, will not bring trouble. The Director usually accepts the information from the Comando because he knows that the organization has control over their colleagues. In this way, the authorities and criminals have a kind of tacit agreement. The leaders of the C.V. control the prison for the administration, who, in turn, closes its eyes for what the Comando is doing. Keeping the prison tranquil, clear of fighting and tumult, is not a easy job.

The power of Comando Vermelho in Ilha Grande is historic, and itcontinues to be strong even after the primary leaders were transferred to Bangu Um prison in 1988. Occasionally, a letter is discovered which is written from Ilha Grande to those leaders in Bangu Um asking for their advice. But in reality, due to distance, before an answer returns from the high leaders, the Comando on the island has already made their own decisions.

When Bangu Um prison was inaugurated in 1988, and information circulated that the primary leaders were going to be transferred, the prisoners conducted a hunger strike which lasted several days. They wanted to prevent the inauguration, but the strike didn't work and the transfers were completed. Afterwards, those leaders sent a strict order from Bangu Um, an ultimatum, stating that unless the authorities rescinded the transfers, one prisoner a day would be murdered in all the prisons where the C.V. held power. The result was instantaneous. In different penitentiaries prisoners started to be killed. The cruelty was so extreme that even an important member of the C.V. was assassinated because he was a friend and the preferred cook of the prison Director.

At the end of almost two months, a total of 28 men were dead. The C.V. leaders never gained anything from those deaths. Instead, an inquiry was opened and 190 prisoners were accused. Today, in Cândido Mendes prison, several inmates would already have their conditional freedom, but, because of their involvement with this episode, these inmates are all considered "hanged." Their complicated case is rejected by every attorney, and the prisoners can only wait on the island, abandoned.