The social pedagogical effectiveness of imprisonment

This article resumes part of the doctoral research titled The social pedagogical effectiveness of imprisonmentII, which was conducted from 1997 to 2001 in the Postgraduate Program in Education at Universidade de São Paulo and defended on August 21st, 2001. The pertinence of reflecting again on the subject is due to the approval of the National Guidelines for Education in Prison Facilities, Resolution 3 on March 11th, 2009, by the National Council on Criminal and Prison Policies (CNPCP), and ratified by the Ministry of Education by means of Resolution 2 of the National Council on Education (CNE) on May 19th, 2010. A practical consequence of this rule is the creation of the National Plan for Education in the Prison System, with the obligation for each state in the federation to have its own State Plan for Education in Prison Facilities, from which an idea emerges, whether implicitly or overtly, of a political-pedagogical project for education in prisons. The study was conducted in four prison units in the state of São Paulo, with a sample that included adolescents, women and adult males in the midland of the state, and with males who were serving over 12 years in prison. It was a longitudinal study which used documents from childhood to adult life and diagnosed the conditions in which individuals entered prison, the transformations they had undergone, and the objective conditions they would have by the time they are released. The study’s findings are a relevant foundation for the current debate on education in prisons in Brazil.