In 2006, 34-year-old Maria “Show” Christina da Silva was sentenced to six years at the Talavera Bruce Women’s Prison in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She only served half of her sentence because Rio’s jails were so overcrowded that the city was forced to release inmates to make room for newly sentenced criminals. After spending some time with Maria while she served out her last days behind bars, I documented her first two weeks of freedom.
Days before her release, Maria smokes a cigarette behind a door of the Talavera Bruce Women’s Prison, where she served three years for trafficking cocaine (somewhere around 30 kilos a week) for the Pure Third Command, one of Rio’s most powerful drug organizations.
The entrance to a section of prison cells at Talavera Bruce, one of the 17 penal units inside the notorious Bangu complex on the outskirts of Rio.
A fellow inmate exchanges goodbyes with Maria. She will return to a hard life in Coréia, a favela in Bangu, this time without the support of her husband—he left her while she was serving her sentence.
Maria gets her first taste of freedom in three years as she leaves Talavera Bruce.
Maria hugs a man she befriended while detained. Minutes after her release, she went to this bar, located directly across from the Bangu complex, to have a celebratory drink.
Maria embraces one of her children in a bar in Morro do Tiro. Samba dancing was one of things she missed the most while in prison.
Maria sits with her son after a tense reunion. When she asked him to live with her in Bangu, he replied, “I will never live with you, Mommy.”
A portion of a meal that was prepared to celebrate Maria’s arrival in Teresópolis, where her children and close friends reside.
Maria enters the ocean for the first time in years. Before becoming involved in the drug world, she made a living designing bikinis.
Maria hops down a path of swan boats near Ipanema beach like a child on holiday.
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