Brazilian prisons in times of mass incarceration: Ambivalent transformations
| Published date | 01 December 2022 |
| Author | Luiz Dal Santo |
| Date | 01 December 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12493 |
Received: 23 August 2021 Accepted: 21 April 2022
DOI: 10.1111/ho jo.12493
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Brazilian prisons in times of mass incarceration:
Ambivalent transformations
Luiz Dal Santo
DPhil candidate and Graduate Teaching
Assistant in Criminology, University of
Oxford
Correspondence
Luiz Dal Santo, DPhil candidate and
Graduate TeachingAssistant in
Criminology, University of Oxford.
Email: luiz.dalsanto@crim.ox.ac.uk
Abstract
Most of the scholarship on the ‘punitive turn’ has
claimed that there have been two main trends in pun-
ishment since the 1970s: the rise of incarceration rates
(quantitative dimension) and the worsening of prison
conditions (qualitative dimension). Scholars argue that,
in parallel with the rise of mass incarceration, there
has been a fall of the rehabilitative ideal. In this view,
prisons in core countries have basically operated as a
warehouse, working towards neutralisation and inca-
pacitation. Both trends are also viewed as reflecting
a global convergence of penal policies. The analysis
of the Brazilian case challenges this supposed univer-
sality. Drawing on official prison data, reports from
non-governmental organisations, and secondary data, I
argue that mass incarceration has not been accompanied
by the same qualitative changes to prisons in ‘West-
ern countries’ and Brazil. First, features of the so-called
warehouse prison, such as low levels of prison activi-
ties, have always been present in Brazilian prisons, and
are not an effect of mass incarceration. Furthermore, the
consequences of mass incarceration in Brazilian prisons
have, in fact, been ambivalent and, in some cases, may
have alleviated inmates’ suffering, rather than inten-
sifying experiences of confinement. Finally, instead of
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and
reproduction in any medium, providedthe original work is properly cited.
© 2022 The Authors. The HowardJournal of Crime and Justice published by Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
502 wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hojo HowardJ. Crim. Justice. 2022;61:502–518.
THE HOWARDJOURNAL OF CRIME AND JUSTICE 503
neutralising and controlling criminals, Brazilian pris-
ons under mass incarceration have contributed to the
emergence, empowerment, recruitment and organisa-
tion of gangs, whose powers now transcend the physical
barriers of prison walls.
KEYWORDS
gangs, Global South, mass incarceration, pains of imprisonment,
prison labour, punitive turn, warehouse prison
1 INTRODUCTION
Between the late 1990s and early 2010s, discussions of the ‘punitive turn’ colonised the agenda
of criminological research in so-called ‘Western countries’ (e.g., Cavadino & Dignan, 2006;De
Giorgi, 2002;Garland,2001a;Nelken,2011; Pratt et al., 2005; Wacquant, 2009). This scholarship
emerged to make sense of newly-identified trends and patterns of punishment. Penal changes at
that time had two distinct dimensions – a quantitative one and a qualitative one. On the one
hand, incarceration rates and the sizes of prison populations were increasing at an extremely
accelerated pace, reaching rates ‘markedly above the historical and comparative norm for soci-
eties of this type’ (Garland, 2001b, p.2). This quantitative dimension is now referred to as mass
incarceration. On the other hand, this quantitative change has also impacted qualitative transfor-
mations in punishment: criminologists have claimed (i) there has been a fall of the rehabilitative
ideal. From this perspective, prisons no longer operate towards the reintegration of inmates, but
in addition to (ii) being harsher and having worse conditions, (iii) they now work as a warehouse
that neutralises and incapacitates criminals (e.g., Bauman, 1998; Feeley & Simon, 1992;Garland,
2001a; Hallsworth, 2002; Pavarini,2007). Together, these two dimensions are considered the main
features of the punitive turn, which has supposedly been spread across the world.
This discussion has become a little tired in the Global North due to the centrality of other topics
in public and political debates – for example, police brutality,migration, and economic crises. Yet
it remains a very vivid topic in Brazil and Latin America. The dramatic increase in incarceration
rates is probably the main factor resulting in the incorporation of the ‘punitive turn’ paradigm
into criminological accounts in the region. From 1990 to 2016, the Brazilian prison population
increased by over 700%, from nearly 90,000 to 726,700 inmates (Fórum Brasileiro de Seguranca
Pública, 2017). In proportional terms, this represents a variation of imprisonment rates from 61
to 352. Following the presumed global trend, the Brazilian penal system did also experience an
expansion beyond imprisonment. Transcarceration, that is, the expansion of alternative sentenc-
ing, is also a reality in Brazil. In 1987, only 197 alternative sentences were enforcedin the country.
Fifteen years later, this number exceeded 100,000. Then, in 2009, this soaredto 671,078 (Ministry
of Justice, 2010, pp.16–17). This clearly confirms that Brazil, too, has experienced the quantitative
increases in its criminal justice system.
Though some Brazilian criminologists have reproduced the idea of a local ‘punitive turn’ in
which mass incarceration was followed by the very same or similar qualitative changes expe-
rienced by countries in the Global North (e.g., Arantes, 2012; Figueiredo, 2021; Silva & Farias,
2017; see, however, Godoi, 2017), I argue in this article that this has not happened. On the one
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