Mass incarceration in times of economic growth and inclusion? Three steps to understand contemporary imprisonment in Brazil

Abstract

Mass incarceration is a phenomenon that emerged in the USA in the 1970s. Since then, this pattern of imprisonment has taken shape in all other continents. Nowadays, many ‘core countries’ have been able to neutralize it and, in some cases, even reverse it. This, however, is not the case in Latin America. In this region, the increase of imprisonment rates has remained intense even in times of economic growth, in contrast to the main theories on punishment developed in the Global North. Drawing on primary and secondary data, I analyse the Brazilian case and indicate three necessary steps to understand contemporary imprisonment in the country. This article is structured in three main sections. I argue first that Brazilian criminologists have asked the wrong question: rather than asking why we have high imprisonment rates now, we should first understand why we had imprisonment rates comparable to Nordic countries up to the 1980s. I then argue we should stop uncritically reproducing northern theories and understand the local conditions of possibility for mass incarceration in times of social inclusion. I finally claim we should change the focus on the players: rather than pointing out to the Executive and Legislative dimensions, we ought to better understand internal struggles in the criminal justice system, considering in particular the pivotal role of judges in the Brazilian mass incarceration.

Servitude for a time: From the permanent slavery of the unfree to the slavery pro tempore of the free

“…In the case of Latin America (Aguirre, 2005;Dal Santo, 2021;Giamberardino, 2021;Salvatore and Aguirre, 1996), the comparison of Argentina and Brazil is particularly interesting, with the juxtaposition of an immigrant working class in Argentina and of the issue of "race" instead in Brazil (and the difference there between the Nordeste, with its legacy of slavery, and the South, where the historical heritage of slavery mixes up with a situation more similar to the Argentinian case) (Salvatore, 1996). It was only with the end of slavery that something approaching the institutions for the subordination of the free could start to be detected, especially after the arrival to both countries of European immigrants-even if such development was poorly represented in the stilted "evolution" of penitentiary systems (Caimari, 2004).…”