A R2.3-billion stadium being built in the Brazilian Amazon for next year's soccer World Cup might be used after the tournament as a prison to relieve overcrowding elsewhere.
The 44000-capacity Arena da Amazonia, in Manaus, Amazonas state, will host four group-stage matches but many fear it will become a white elephant after the event.
World soccer control body Fifa admits on its website that the city of Manaus is "not a traditional hotbed of Brazilian football".
Prison authorities raised the possibility of using the massive arena to hold suspects temporarily before transferring them.
Sabino Marques, president of the Amazonas prison system's monitoring and control group, told Brazilian website G1: "After the World Cup, I believe there will be entirely idle spaces. Every day we have arrests in Amazonas and where are we going to put them?
"The prison in Manaus has a capacity of 200 to 300 people but there are at least 1000 detainees there."
He suggested using the stadium for detentions of up to 72 hours to relieve pressure on Raimundo Vidal Pessoa prison, at which inmates staged a revolt earlier this year.
Marques suggested that the stadium's primary use as a football arena was not an obstacle to his proposal.
"It's important to find solutions," he said. "No one is going to lie down on the grass. It's no privilege for Amazonas that the prison system is getting unbearable."
Last week, Guilherme Calmon, of the National Council of Justice, visited the prison to assess the overcrowding.
"Amazonas has one of the highest percentages of pre-trial detainees compared to the Brazilian average," he said. "Around 78% of the prison population are pre-trial detainees and the national average is 42% ."
The Arena da Amazonia is due to be delivered to Fifa by December.
About 1700 labourers are working in two shifts to finish the stadium, which has received millions in federal funding.
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