Summary A gruesome video emerged showing three prisoners who had been decapitated in December at the prison.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) - Authorities at a Brazilian prison where three inmates were beheaded last month said Tuesday they have uncovered another death.
The individual was found hanging in his cell by a sheet at the notorious Pedrinhas penitentiary in the country s far north, the Maranhao state government indicated in a statement to AFP.
Earlier this month a gruesome video emerged showing three prisoners who had been decapitated in December at the prison.
The clip aired on the website of Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo and showed stark evidence of a violent mutiny which followed clashes between two rival gangs.
"It will only be possible to ascertain the circumstances of the death after an investigation," the statement read.
Some 60 inmates were killed last year in Pedrinhas, a facility built for 1,700 prisoners but which currently houses 2,500.
And three people have already died at the facility in 2014, media outlet Globo s G1 web portal reported.
Last October, Maranhao authorities slapped a six-month state of emergency on the state s penitentiary system after clashes left nine people dead.
The United Nations has expressed concern over conditions in Brazilian jails and has demanded immediate measures to bring the situation in Pedrinhas under control.
One plan is to transfer some inmates -- notably gang leaders -- to other facilities, while the state government said last week it will build more jails to alleviate overcrowding.
Under the plan, nine Pedrinhas inmates were transferred Monday to a jail in Campo Grande some 2,500 kilometres (1,600 miles) further south.
Brazil prisons, which hold a population of 548,000 inmates, need some 207,000 additional spaces to avoid overcrowding, according to human rights NGO Conectas.
