Dirty deeds.

Brazilian prisons are known for near-daily uprisings and escapes, but this one was something special: Eighty seven men in the Sao Paulo State Penitentiary dug a 120-meter tunnel to an outside sewer line. Suddenly. dirty, half-naked convicts wriggled up through manhole covers and ran into shops and houses to evade police in the November jailbreak. Thirty-one escaped, 48 were recaptured and eight died, most from asphyxiation as officers used backhoes to dig out the collapsing tunnel. Brazilian jails are awful. Dozens of detainees live in cells built for two. Police are on edge, too, recently arresting 160 at a party in an upscale Silo Paulo neighborhood held to celebrate the killing of police officers. If Sao Paulo, the country's richest, most industrialized state, can't spend properly on reasonable jail conditions, it should be no surprise that some behind bars would risk their lives for a shot at freedom--and a chance to get back to the criminal gangs that support them.