PRISON OVERCROWDING AND THE STRENGTHENING OF CRIMINAL FACTIONS IN THE BRAZILIAN PRISON SYSTEM: CHALLENGES TO THE EFFECTIVE REHABILITATION OF INMATES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66104/h7ryzb97Keywords:
Criminal law; Criminal policy; Prison system; Prison overcrowding; Resocialization.Abstract
Prison overcrowding constitutes the main humanitarian and institutional crisis of the Brazilian prison system, revealing the ineffectiveness of the current penal model. Mass incarceration, driven by a selective and punitive criminal policy, creates an environment of human degradation that violates fundamental constitutional principles. In this scenario of state abandonment, criminal factions rise and consolidate a parallel power within prisons, assuming control of discipline, security, and resource distribution. This article analyzes the direct correlation between overpopulation in prisons and the strengthening of these organizations, arguing that the failure of the prison structure makes the effective resocialization of the inmate impossible, converting the sentence into an instrument of exclusion and criminal recidivism. Finally, the urgent legal and political responses needed to dismantle the power of the factions and restore the humanitarian and integrative purpose of penal execution are discussed.
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