“A máquina de moer de gente”: os impactos da COVID-19 no sistema prisional de Pernambuco

Abstract

In Brazil, discussions around the issue of incarceration and the prison situation have been a constant target of debates on the agenda of human rights, public security, criminal policy and the allocation of the Brazilian state in the international context. With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become necessary to take a closer and more vigilant look at the situation surrounding Brazilian prisons and especially Pernambuco's prisons. Over the course of 2019 and 2024, we focused our studies on the theme of Pernambuco's prisons. Investigating the trajectories of women who have left prison and the experiences of professionals who have worked in prisons. Faced with the emergence of the crisis that was on the horizon, our research into prisons took on a new debate, and from that context we focused our studies on the impacts of COVID-19 on the prison system in Pernambuco. This paper seeks to contribute to Consumer Science studies on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Pernambuco prison system, based on an articulated analysis of production and consumer relations, which form a dynamic and complex whole that relates to and transforms itself into social, economic, political and cultural phenomena. Based on the reports, bulletins and ordinances published by the National Penitentiary Department (DEPEN) and the National Council of Justice (CNJ), we sought to analyze the impacts of COVID-19 within the Pernambuco prison system; analyze the actions taken by the state to deal with the pandemic; and analyze the impacts on prisoners. Finally, our work seeks to be a contribution to the field of consumer studies aimed at studies of the prison system and subaltern trajectories.