O "trabalho humaniza"?: uma análise da política de ressocialização prisional pela via do trabalho no Estado da Paraíba

Abstract

The aledged resocializing function of imprisonment tries to give an impression of positivity to penalties and to strengthen the existence of jails as places of recovery, in spite of reality’s constant demonstration of the opposite. Prison is considered a hostile environment meant to docile subjectivity, to implement social control and physical and existential extermination, the belief in work as an instrument of resocialization being frequent. Penal labor, as a part of the capitalist context, has presented itself as a way of finding use to those who did not fit this mode of production. This research investigates the possibilities and impossibilities of prisons to operate as a place of resocialization using penal labor as a tool for doing so. The study’s object is the Resocialization Policy of the Penal Administration Secretary (SEAP/PB) through “Trabalho Humaniza” project, which is a component of the Program “Cidadania é Liberdade”. Therefore, the main purpose of this dissertation is to analyze SEAP’s Resocialization Policy through labor. The specific goals are: to describe “Trabalho Humaniza” Project; to apprehend the implicit conceptions of resocialization and labor within the resocialization policy; to problematize the ways that the resocialization policy is operated through labor. The theoretical route, which is based on critical criminology, approaches the hidden functions of prisons, penal selectivity, the processes of criminalizing poverty and mass imprisonment, finishing with the discussion on resocialization through penal labor. The methodological route is split in two parts. The first one is the analysis of “Cartilha do Trabalho Prisional” (Penal Labor Brochure), a document written by Ministério Público and SEAP/PB aiming to make public the importance of penal labor to the process of resocialization. The second part is formed by the analysis of the interviews with four of the professionals that conduct the project. The results show the punitivist bias in which the referred policy is in, as well as the fallacy of resocialization and the impossibility of jails to promote meaningful, positive changes in the life of those who are benefitted by the project. Furthermore, the actual function of penal labor as a tool exploitation, control and adjustment of individuals to the capitalist mode of production has been confirmed. The need of a critical look upon the Criminal Policies as a manner of overcoming the illusions of resocialization which are sustained by prisons is in order. The study points out to penal abolitionism as key to building a new ethical, political project to our society.