“Humanized” penalties: a question of (in)justice?

Abstract

The prison population constitutes a serious problem in Brazil, however civil institutions have proposed the humanization of prison sentences. Given the scarcity of studies that portray the perception of the convict, exploratory descriptive research was carried out to investigate with 34 convicts whether serving a humanized sentence, through alternative methods, conveys a feeling of justice. The investigation demonstrated that 100% of those interviewed considered that the model conveys the feeling of justice, and although recovery has proven to be a possible reality, an in-depth analysis allows us to conclude that the humanization of punishment in itself would not be enough to transform prisoners into citizens, It is necessary that new approaches be adopted to effectively insert former students, given that the transformation of individuals in an excluded environment with segregative social structures proves to be a fallacy that aims to legitimize the deprivation of liberty as a synonym for justice.