CRIMINAL POLICY AND PRISON SYSTEM: THE PSYCHOLOGISTS' PRACTICE IN THE PRISONS OF PARAIBA
Critical Criminology; Criminal Policy; Prison System; Psychologist's Practice
This research aims to analyse the psychologist's practice in the prison system in the state of Paraiba - Brazil, as well as correlate it to the current criminal policy. In order to do so, the following have been listed as the specific objectives: map and characterise the work of psychologists in the prison institutions in Paraiba; investigate the existing relations between the criminal policy and the practice of the psychologists in the prison institutions. As for the method, ten semistructured and individual interviews were performed with psychologists who work in the prisons of Paraiba. The analysis of the data was done based on the Critical Criminology as a theorical framework, which is a perspective that focuses on materialism and which aims to establish a radical analysis of the punitive mechanisms and of the true functions of the penal system. The results obtained confirmed the expected reality: overcrowded prisons; terrible infrastructure conditions; insalubrity; countless violations of human rights. As for the professionals, they are inserted in the prison system in Paraiba through the health teams, whose job has been, all in all, to perform individual follow-ups, run quick health tests and do punctual activities. Besides that, the psychologists also have their practice aimed to the production of documents that subsidise judicial decisions related to the progression of regime and parole. The interviews pointed towards a predominance of the clinical practice with speeches that focus on the culpabilisation of the family, individualisation of the matters that lead to committing a crime and a strong influence of the Positivist and Liberal Criminologies. It was also observed that the practice faces obstacles such as precarious working conditions, great demand, overcrowded prisons and lack of adequate infrastructure. Finally, it can be concluded that the pratice of the psychologist in the prisons is part of a coplex debate which is still under development, with limitations which are intensified by the violent and precarious environment. On top of that, practices keep getting closer and closer to the traditional model rather than expanding an analysis that approaches the guarantee of human rights in the prisons and rethinks the existance of those penal institutions.