PARADOXICAL INFLECTIONS: DISPUTES AND NEGOTIATIONS ON THE PROVISION OF EDUCATION IN SÃO PAULO PRISONS

Abstract

Resuming a brief history about the provision of education to people deprived of their freedom in prisons, this article describes some conflicts and negotiations present in the Programa de Educação nas Prisões de São Paulo (Education Program in the Prisons of São Paulo State, Brazil) run by Funap - Fundação Prof. Dr. Manoel Pedro Pimentel, from 2004 to 2012. Based on data collection from the different subjects that interact in this program and a direct insertion of the author in São Paulo prison system, the text presents the inmate education monitor, a social identity forged within the social relations established in Sao Paulo prisons, as a paradoxical inflection point between supposedly antagonistic criminal practices that coexist in prisons and that influence all social relationships established therein, determining policies and strategies that constitute that Program, which is easily perceived by the continued growth of São Paulo prison system. The article complements findings obtained during a master's research in sociology, providing some new data.

Keywords: penal practices; education in São Paulo prisons, inmate education monitor; Funap.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14244/19827199614