Local effects of prison facilities
Prison; Correctional policy; Prison interiorization; Alcaçuz Penitentiary; Horticulture
Community; Communicating vessels.
This study analyzed the Brazilian prison detention policy and its effects at the local level,
precisely due to the Alcaçuz Penal Complex's presence in the Hortigranjeira Community,
which is located in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. This complex is formed by the State
Penitentiary of Alcaçuz and the Penitentiary Rogério Coutinho Madruga - Pavilion 5. The
study has four chapters, which are divided as follows: chapter 1 presented the detention
policy in Brazil and the Rio Grande do Norte; chapter 2 described the research study area,
where the audience is informed about the community and the prisons, as well as to
characterize them and, finally, the presence of criminal factions in the two prisons in the
contex of the Alcaçuz Massacre in 2017; chapter 3 discussed who and what transits
between inside and outside prisons, constituting what is called communicating vessels;
and, the last chapter discussed the effects of the penitentiaries on the community. The
study aims to answer the research question: what effects does the Brazilian prison
interiorization policy cause, considering the installation of the Alcaçuz Penitentiary and
the Rogério Coutinho Madruga Penitentiary, in the community's life of the Hortigranjeira
Community? A bibliographic research of studies related to prisons, mass incarceration,
prisoners' relatives, and criminal factions was carried out. The ethnographic work
consisted of trips to the community. For data collection, interviews was done with
residents, relatives of prisoners, and drivers stockings. Also, participant observation was
used to observe the visiting routine of families to prisons. Therefore, the study showed
two well-defined groups in the community: the residents and the prisoners' relatives, in
which the relationships between them do not occur homogeneously. There were also
changes in the economic and urban life of Hortigranjeira. It was attested by the
relationships and narratives from the prisons, such as the emerging of commercial
activities, the feeling of security by the residents, the prisoners' relatives' spatialization,
and the businesses that serve them.