Good criminal is a criminal that nobody sees

massification of prison in Alagoas and the social “blindness” carved by the neoliberal model

Abstract

For a long time, prison was a means of applying state punishment, not punishment itself. The change of perspective on prison, especially with the dissemination of democratic ideals, ended up being driven by the argument that, in addition to punishing, it would be necessary to recover and reinsert the transgressor in a useful way in society, consolidating what was revealed to be an important political strategy of social segregation, extreme by the neoliberal model, which massifies imprisonment for certain politically unrepresentative groups, widening social inequalities. In this article, therefore, it is this dynamic between the aspirations of the economic model and the alleged social utility of prison that we will deal with, whose main objective will be to unveil and critically analyze how this correlated cycle of social segregation - unemployment - crime - punishment takes place – mass incarceration. In this sense, in order to achieve this goal, we will use the hypothetical-deductive methodology, mostly qualitative, with the articulation of the bibliographic review technique and the consequent collection of data in the relevant literature and in the official databases on Brazilian prison maintained by official vehicles of control and punishment. Although, so that this could happen in the least complex and generalist way possible, we chose to illustrate some of the reflections presented with the data about the State of Alagoas (one of the poorest in Brazil), either because it is the place from which we speak, be it because its indicators reveal in the clearest and most direct way what is problematized.