EDUCAÇÃO IN THE BRAZILIAN PENITENTIÁRIO SYSTEM

Abstract

The prison population in Brazil has been growing exponentially and the lack of places for these inmates has been increasing the problem and generating a desire in the government and states to build new penitentiaries to meet these needs. However, the construction of new units should not be the main component. There are other factors that can be addressed so that overcrowding in the prison system begins to cease to be a reality, even if small, using as a component of assistance the fundamental social right of education for prisoners, which initially may not be a solution, but a strategy that will contribute to the insertion of these inmates into society, including the idea that they will be able to have a productive and self-sustainable life after serving their sentences, thus reducing the time that these inmates spend idle without work inside their cells, which for the most part, are spent creating strategies to return to crime. Studies show that less than 13% of the prison population has access to education, of which 8% are not even literate, 70% did not complete elementary school and less than 1% went to college. This reality does not justify the overwhelming growth of the prison population, but it proves that social inequality exists and that people who did not have the opportunity to attend school are more likely to turn to crime because they do not have the opportunity to compete with those who did. Other reports show that prisoners are generally young people between 18 and 25 years old, who should be forming their character by attending schools to build their future, but who have already graduated are now criminals.

Considering that education is a fundamental right of all and it is guaranteed by the Federal Constitution so that people have the prospect of change and acquire qualifications, it is an essential tool. Such a right, when directed to the population living in prison, apparently does not have the same weight and recognition, even knowing that prisoners will return to social life upon completing their sentences. This situation reinforces the need to examine incarceration policies. This is why this work is being carried out with the aim of verifying how these benefits are being practiced or if they are non-existent in Brazil's penal institutions. The study method will be bibliographical research and the development will be through consultations through magazines, archives, and research that provide information on the subject and add knowledge of the context studied.