For much of the 19th century, Ilha Grande was a shelter to quarantine patients who came from abroad, and later it became a colony for leprosy patients.
In the 1960s, the Cândido Mendes Penal Colony was built, where some of the most dangerous criminals in Brazil were sent during the Estado Novo and political prisoners during the 1964 military regime.
In 1994, the government decided to deactivate the prison, which restricted the island's economy and had serious security problems due to frequent prisoner escapes.
The state governor ordered the building where the prison was to be dynamited, and in 1998, the Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ) obtained the right to transfer the area and dependencies that belonged to the prison, inaugurating the Center for Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development (CEADS).
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