From hangman to prison guard: the employees of the prison system in the context of flexible accumulation and criminal state

Abstract

With overcrowded cells, precariously adapted spaces and degrading sanitary conditions, the prisons represent a growing market. The installation of new units meets the demands of the capital, regarding the market of provisions of service, as much as the absorption of the cheap workforce, thereby increasing their rates of profit. The professional in the prison system suffers the hardships of any worker, added to the fact of working in a total institution and suffering from the phenomena of stigmatization and prison assimilation, factors that drastically deteriorate their lives. The article analyzes the work of prison agents, the origin and the basis of ideological support of this profession, the precariousness of their working conditions and how their alienation as a worker is established, with an emphasis on the reality of Mato Grosso. From a bibliographical review and consultation to diverse sources, it was verified that the prison agent performs their functions under severe stress and degrading conditions of the work, besides the daily conviviality with the profession stigma.