INHERITED IMPRISONMENT: INSTITUTIONAL VIOLENCE AND THE DENIAL OF CHILDREN'S AND MATERNAL RIGHTS IN BRAZILIAN PRISONS

Abstract

This study analyzes, from a critical perspective, the reality of maternity in Brazilian correctional facilities. It demonstrates that, despite constitutional and legal provisions formally framed as "rights," the actual dynamics of maternal imprisonment operate as a form of institutionalized violence, fundamentally detached from the ideal of a Human Criminal Law as proposed by Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni. From this viewpoint, the very safeguards contained in international treaties, such as the Bangkok Rules and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, reveal a practical contradiction: by allowing minors to remain in the prison environment, they violate the principle of the intransmissibility of punishment and infringe upon human dignity. Concurrently, empirical data analysis shows that the penitentiary system replicates the gender inequality found in Brazilian society and acts as an exacerbation of Foucault's biopower. Within the context of a recognized Unconstitutional State of Affairs, the treatment afforded to mothers and children ignores the specificities of the maternal relationship and neglects the minimum legal requirements necessary to safeguard this bond.