Bolsonaro targets deadly gangs run from Brazil's prisons

A police officer checks inmates in the central penitentiary in Porto Alegre, Brazil August 28, 2018. REUTERS/Diego Vara

PORTO ALEGRE (Reuters) - Before Brazilian prosecutors could conduct an inspection last year of the prison considered the country's worst, its warden had to clear their visit with the jail's de facto authorities: in-house prison gangs.

As Brazil's incarcerated population has surged eight-fold in three decades to around 750,000 inmates, the world's third-highest tally, its prison gangs have come to wield vast power that reaches far beyond the jailhouse walls.