KEY POINTS:
Sir Peter Blake's killer has tried to escape from jail at least three times, the last time by trying to blow up the prison walls. In an earlier attempt, he tried to dig his way out.
Ricardo Colares Tavares and the other five members of his gang are
now facing their sixth year in the Amapa State Prison in Macapa, Brazil.
The so-called "river pirates" stormed Sir Peter's boat, the Seamaster, as it lay moored at the mouth of the Amazon on December 5, 2001. Tavares shot Sir Peter twice in the back.
Under Brazilian law, the men were tried as if each had pulled the trigger and all were given sentences ranging from 26 to 36 years.
Tavares is said to be well behaved in English classes but otherwise a "difficult" prisoner who has been punished several times for "acts of indiscipline", says the Weekend Herald's correspondent in Macapa, Francisco Franca. "He had 10 days of punishment because he disrespected one of the security guards. I think it was verbal offences.
"The other time he had five days of punishment, in May 2004, also because of some indiscipline ... The last time was in October last year. He had a 30-day punishment and this time he [and other prisoners] tried to explode the wall."
Tavares and his second-in-command, Isael Pantoja da Costa, have applied for privileges but are unlikely to receive any because of bad behaviour and the fact that their sentences offered no prospect of parole.
Only one of the gang, Rubens da Silva Souza, is receiving privileges. He was the driver of the getaway boat and is the youngest of the robbers. Aged 21 at the time, he was jailed for 26 years and eight months.
The prison has a punishment reduction system where if prisoners behave they can go outside to work, and that is what Souza is doing.
The Education Department has a new programme at the prison and Tavares and Da Costa are going to school.
Amapa is one of Brazil's smallest and poorest regions and the education drive is part of a statewide initiative for people who did not get any schooling for reasons such as having been sent out to work.
"It's like any other school in the state," says the English teacher at the jail, Alvaro Vasques. "It's a public school but, of course, only for inmates. I thought it would be a little bit different but it's not. The students are all aiming to finish their high school."
Tavares and Da Costa are in the equivalent of their first year of high school.
Other subjects include chemistry, history, Portuguese language and literature, physics and mathematics.
Mr Vasques says he has not spoken to Tavares about his crime - "the principal told us just to go there and teach and worry about their future and not about their past".
He says prisoners treat the teachers well but complain about the food and how they are treated.
Life is harsh. There are about 700 prisoners who are often locked in cells for long stretches at a time.
And you don't want to step out of line. An Amnesty International report from 2002 says military police entered the jail and shot one prisoner in the head.
