HUMAN RIGHTS AND PUBLIC SECURITY IN THE BRAZILIAN PRISON SYSTEM

Abstract

This article critically analyzes the relationship between human rights and public security in the Brazilian prison system, based on the frameworks of penal guarantees and critical criminology. It begins with the observation that the current punitive model, centered on mass incarceration and penal populism, has produced structural violations of fundamental rights, selectively impacting poor, Black, and socially vulnerable populations. The research adopts a qualitative methodology, of a bibliographic and critical nature, articulated with the analysis of concrete experiences from daily prison life, with special attention to women's prisons. Themes such as overcrowding, mental health, institutional violence, criminalization of poverty, structural racism, and the expansion of penal control through alternatives such as electronic monitoring are examined. It is demonstrated that such measures, when disconnected from public policies of social support, tend to expand the reach of punitive power instead of promoting decarceration. Finally, the need to overcome the exclusively repressive paradigm is discussed, advocating for the construction of public security policies guided by human rights, the limitation of punitive power, and the adoption of practices such as restorative justice and the humanized management of conflicts, compatible with the Democratic Rule of Law.