Overview - Dossier: Between peers, up close and from within: the Brazilian Criminal Police and prison work. (Mediações, vol. 31, n.2 – 2026/2)

Organizers: Francisco Elionardo de Melo Nascimento (UECE) and Marcos Melo de Oliveira (Secretary of State for Justice and Public Security, MG)

 

The Brazilian Penal Police was created in 2019 by Constitutional Amendment 104/2019 (BRAZIL, 2019), replacing the career of penitentiary agents in Brazil, with the inclusion of penal police officers in Article 144 of the Federal Constitution, as Public Security professionals. Although adopting the nomenclature of police, the work in prisons remains focused on the execution of custodial sentences.

The duties of police officers in prison are directly linked to the punitive and therapeutic functions of the sentence, which are complex and contradictory (THOMPSON, 1991). Custody and assistance are fundamental elements in the daily work of these professionals (ARAÚJO; RIBEIRO, 2023; SOUSA; NASCIMENTO, 2023). It is a dual job of repression and care, involving discipline and surveillance, with the aim of maintaining order (KAUFFMAN, 1981; LOMBARDO, 1989) and assisting in activities focused on resocialization (MORAES, 2013; BANDEIRA; BATISTA, 2009; LOURENÇO, 2011; OLIVEIRA, 2024).

This work is carried out in the tense atmosphere of prison units, targeting individuals who, for various reasons, have committed crimes. For this reason, it is stigmatized, undervalued, and often characterized in a derogatory manner (ERIKSSON, 2021), despite its recognized social importance. The hostile nature of prison work requires skills for conflict resolution before they turn into disturbances of order, leading to riots and rebellions (TAIT, 2011; KING, 2009). It is a function marked by constant feelings of power and vulnerability (MONTEIRO, 2023), translating into continuous vigilance due to the possibility of violence inside and outside prisons (STICHMAN, GORDON, 2014; SANTIAGO et al., 2016; ARAÚJO; RIBEIRO, 2023; NASCIMENTO, 2023; Nery et al., 2023).

Despite being a developing research field in Brazil, discussions about prison work and the role of penal police officers are still limited (LOURENÇO; ALVAREZ, 2018; NASCIMENTO, 2022a; CAITANO; SERVA, 2020), especially in social science research developed from everyday scenes. The insufficient number of studies on the subject results in partial or total ignorance of the work performed by these professionals, as it is carried out in closed, controlled institutions with little access to society (NASCIMENTO; SORIA BATISTA, 2023). It only becomes a social agenda during crises, such as riots, rebellions, and reports of corruption, mistreatment, or torture. It is not uncommon for penal police officers to be characterized as corrupt, torturers, violent, dishonest, and unprepared.

The propagation of these stigmas disregards that the work of these professionals occurs in specific institutional contexts, amid overcrowding, insufficient material conditions of life, psychosocial, legal, health, work, and educational assistance. Thus, contrary to the exhaustive analyses and diagnoses of prisoners' living conditions, prison infrastructure characteristics, and practices of human rights violations, the work of the Penal Police has received scant attention.

Moraes (2013) warns that the few analyses of the daily prison security work result from researchers' difficulties accessing prisons and penal police officers. These professionals seek to maintain the anonymity of their role for their own safety and the safety of their families (CASTRO E SILVA, 2011; RIBEIRO et al., 2019). However, their reluctance to participate in research also stems from the stigmas associated with their role and the assumption that analyses may reinforce the depreciative image of their function (NASCIMENTO, 2022).

In addition to the few studies on prison work and the role of penal police officers, the knowledge they build in their daily work is also not addressed. According to Freire (1992), experiential knowledge indicates that scientific knowledge is not the only existing knowledge. There is also common sense, the knowledge built in the daily lives of a group of people, in a specific space and time, and this knowledge cannot be disregarded. On the contrary, it is also from this knowledge that the understanding of social problems is facilitated.

Like Freire (1992), Larrosa Bondía (2002) also values experiential knowledge, pointing out that experience is what happens to us, what touches and affects us to the point of enabling us to speak about these experiences with propriety, as they have shaped and transformed us.

This proposal for a Thematic Issue of Revista Mediações aims to address the work of penal police officers in prison, gathering research on the work of these professionals from various perspectives and, mainly, conducted through field and (auto)ethnographic research. Research that addresses the prison work process (process, content, control, etc.), analysis of prison work in different contexts of prison management: criminal governance, the presence of state authority, and the APAC method, will be welcome. Aspects such as work and subjectivity, work and identity, work and morality (dirty work), work, and stigma are of interest.