(Sobre)viver no cárcere: um estudo a partir da ótica das mulheres em situação de prisão no conjunto penal feminino de Salvador

Abstract

This research was carried under qualitative approach, making use of interviews, field observation, empirical and bibliographic data analysis. It aimed at investigating the effects of the incarceration in both physical and psychological conditions of incarcerated women and their consequences in the execution of penalty, in order to assess, if the Brazilian penal system is able to offer the convicts the minimum necessary to have a dignified existence. Such assessment was based on the every-day life of the women imprisoned in Salvador Female Penitentiary. The study begins by identifying the relation between the selective character of the punitive system, the symbolic content of the penal laws and mass incarceration, all of which are instruments used by the dominant classes and the State to provide support to the capitalist production by the means of imprisoning those who, by social, racial and gender aspects, represent a threat to capitalism itself. To do so, it was needed to draw a panorama about the purpose of the imprisonment penalty, focusing on the construction of the social enemy and on encouraging the culture of fear; instruments financed by the owners of economic power, who are also supported by the media. It was also necessary to study the legislation related to the trafficking of narcotics, which is the great responsible for the overcrowded Brazilian prisons, especially the female ones, targeted as the growing and massive violation of basic human rights. The study also analyzes the construction of women as an active subject of crime, based on the paradigmatic periods of criminal studies. In this sense, it investigates the spaces of reclusion of the feminine being beyond prisons. Furthermore, with all due respect to the theoretical limitation of a theses, this investigation sheds light on the set of normative acts and the policies regarding incarcerated women. Finally, it examined the data collected on the field with focus on the experience of the interviewees under the context of incarceration. The study showed that the adversities faced in the very-day life of a prison are not restricted to those inherent to deprivation of freedom. The survival in prison reveals a process of degradation of the being and of their interpersonal relations, which has in it a dose of punishment and can be traced back to the origins of jail sentence.