Sacha Darke | University of Westminster (original) (raw)
Books by Sacha Darke
Author's copy. In Sozzo, M. (Ed.) (2022) Power and Prisons in Latin America (pp.329-363), London:... more Author's copy. In Sozzo, M. (Ed.) (2022) Power and Prisons in Latin America (pp.329-363), London: Palgrave Macmillan Most humane settings in corrections happen to be organised democratically… through participative management and shared decision-making, so that staff (and inmates, in the case of prison programmes) can develop a sense of ownership and a feeling of having a stake in the welfare and survival of the community they have helped to shape. (Toch 2006: 2) When I arrived back at the semi-open unit of APAC de Itaúna men's prison in Minas Gerais, an argument had just broken out in the workshop. Robson, a member of the prison's Sincerity and Solidarity Council (the CSS or the Council), had approached Daniel at the end of the working day to escort him back to his cell as punishment for having only that morning refused to stand up for Christian prayers. Both prisoners had to be physically restrained by their peers after Daniel picked up a metal rod and Robson refused to back down. The CSS president immediately called for a disciplinary hearing, before heading off to inform the governor. While they were waiting to start the proceedings, the other council members gathered to discuss the incident and agreed that Daniel was the main culprit. On his return, the president informed them the governor took the view Robson should not have risen to Daniel's challenge and that both prisoners needed to return to the closed unit. Most Council members disagreed, insisting that the governor was partly to blame, having overridden their decision that morning to confine Daniel to his cell during the daytime as well as the evening. According to the prison's disciplinary code, Daniel should not have lost his right to work for such a minor offence as disobeying orders. Nonetheless, they argued that the governor should not have interfered with a CSS decision, and in any case had not taken into consideration that Daniel, who had been an enemy of Robson since childhood, was bound to use the fact he had completed a hard day's work (and so under any other circumstances would now deserve to spend his evening in association rather than be sent to bed early) as excuse for argument. Since arriving to commence my fieldwork two weeks earlier, I had already sensed that the governor's authority was compromised by the fact he was the first in APAC de Itaúna's by then 17-year history not to have himself previously been a prisoner. When the hearing commenced, all witnesses to the incident, including several Council members, claimed they had arrived at the scene too late to confirm that a weapon had indeed been raised. In his
Punishment and Society, 2021
The Portuguese empire brought inescapable violence to the indigenous communities of Brazil and to... more The Portuguese empire brought inescapable violence to the indigenous communities of Brazil and to those it enslaved. Throughout the centuries of colonial subjugation, driven by the Iberian monarchical traditions of hierarchy, militarism and moral crusade, 'just war' narratives were employed to legitimate the use of violent legal and extra-legal measures against enslaved peoples and others deemed unruly or rebellious and a threat to colonial order. Two centuries after independence, Brazil remains at war with its 'internal enemies'. Its justice practices continue to be characterised by colonial rationalisations. This paper illustrates the contemporary coloniality inherent in the carceral system from the moment of detention pre-trial through sentencing and imprisonment.
Shecaira, S.S. et al. (eds.) Criminologoa: Estudos em Homenagem ao Alvino Augusto de Sá (pp.475-498), Belo Horizonte: D'Placido
Convict Criminology is an international research-activist movement of which the first two named a... more Convict Criminology is an international research-activist movement of which the first two named authors are leading figures in the UK. It started in North America in the 1990s and has more recently emerged in Europe and, most lately South America. It focuses on collaborative teaching and learning. More generally, Convict Criminology aims to produce critical research that is grounded in first-hand accounts of prison life, as well as current and former prisoner-led academic engagement with prison authorities and activists: to bridge the gap between universities and prisoners through developing insider (in this case prisoner and former prisoner) perspectives in the discipline of Criminology. This chapter outlines the authors' efforts to develop such a collabora-tive research activist agenda between social scientists, prisoners, and former prisoners, and to support prisoners and former prisoners through higher education and into academic and criminal justice positions. It demonstrates further that participation in prison education not only also has the potential to transform Criminology, but also has the potential for significant institutional and societal impact. The projects described in this chapter provide prisoners with qualifications, opening up a range of opportunities and pro-social life choices. They are also specifically designed to engage prisoners in reflecting upon their experiences of crime and punishment, demonstrated in critical pedagogical and desistance-from-crime literature to be an effective means of challenging offenders' perceptions of themselves as antisocial citizens and figures of authority (such as prison staff) as enemies. Keywords Convict Criminology; research activism; collaborative knowledge production; prison education. Resumo A Criminologia dos Condenados é um movimento internacional de pesquisa ativismo do qual os dois primeiros autores são figuras de destaque no Reino Unido. Começou na América do Norte nos anos 90 e emergiu mais recentemente na Europa e ultimamante na América do Sul. Ele se concentra no ensino e aprendizagem colaborativo. De forma geral, a Convict Criminology tem como objetivo pesquisas críticas baseadas em contas da primeira mão da vida nas prisões, bem como envolvimento com autoridades penitenciários e ativistas de prisão liderado por prisioneiros e egressos: para preencher a lacuna entre universidades e prisioneiros através do desenvolvimento de perspectivas privilegiadas (neste caso, prisioneiro e ex-prisioneiro) na disciplina de Criminologia. Este capítulo descreve os esforços dos autores para desenvolver uma agenda ativista de pesquisa colaborativa entre cientistas sociais, prisioneiros e ex-prisioneiros, e apoiar prisioneiros e ex-prisioneiros através do ensino superior e entrar em cargos acadêmicos e de justiça criminal. Demonstra ainda que a participação na educação prisional não apenas tem o potencial de transformar a Criminologia, mas também o potencial de um impacto institucional e social significativo. Os projetos descritos neste capítulo fornecem aos presos qualificações, abrindo uma gama de oportunidades e opções de vida pró-sociais. Eles também são
Darke, S. (2018) Conviviality and Survival: Co-producing Brazilian Prison Order, London: Palgrave Macmillan. Portuguese version (forthcoming 2019): Convívio e Sobrevivência: Ordem Prisional em Cogovernança (trans: Karam, M.L.), Belo Horizonte: D'Placido.
Edited journal volumes by Sacha Darke
Aresti, A. & Darke, S. (eds.) (2018) Twenty years of convict criminology, Journal of Prisoners on Prison, 27(2).
Special journal edition edited by me and Chris Garces
Papers by Sacha Darke
Oxford University Press eBooks, 2021
In 2010, the author completed an empirical fieldwork study of an overcrowded carceragem (police l... more In 2010, the author completed an empirical fieldwork study of an overcrowded carceragem (police lock-up; unit of holding cells) in Rio de Janeiro. It served as a detailed illustration of the futility of studying Brazilian prison order from the top down and from the outside in. Few police officers that worked at the carceragem (pseudonymised as Polinter) had delegated full responsibility for managing daily routines, prisoner and staff–prisoner relations to teams of trusty prisoners and inmate leaders on the two wings that made up its cell block. Trusty prisoners worked as administrators, janitors and guards. They were headed by former police officers, the most senior of who were referred to by other prisoners as Polinter’s administracao (administration) or chefia (management). Together with the wing inmate leaders, these two prisoners answered only to the governor and the general coordinator of Rio’s 16 carceragens. One of the most impressive things about governance at Polinter was almost identical systems of inmate representation operated on both wings, despite the fact prisoners held on the second wing, the seguro (insurance or vulnerable persons unit) did not consider themselves career criminals or their coletivo (the Povo de Israel: People of Israel) a criminal gang. The senior police officers (the governor and general coordinator) had instructed the Povo de Israel how to operate along the same lines as prisoners held on the other (CV) wing. Both wings had one representante da cela (cell representative) per cell and one representante geral (general representative). On both wings, prisoners’ families contributed to a caixinha (collection box), the proceeds of which were used to purchase common goods such as cooking equipment and toiletries. When disputes arose between prisoners held in the cell block or their codes of conduct were broken, representantes gathered together as a comissao (commission) to adjudicate and pass sentence. When they were unable to control a certain prisoner, representantes would inform the police he needed to be transferred to another carceragem. On both wings, most prisoners became representantes based on how long they had been there rather than the criminal reputation they had arrived with. Nor was there any real difference between the types of people that ended up serving time on the two wings, beside the fact prisoners in the seguro tended to be older, most having passed the age where they were expected to earn their living from the illicit economy and to be affiliated to a criminal gang. Prisoners were allocated to the CV wing based on where they lived rather than their being actively involved in gang activity. A number of key features of the balance of power and authority at the carceragem could be generalised to the wider Brazilian prison system. First, while the senior police officers retained the final word on how Polinter was governed, the carceragem effectively operated under a customary rather than legalised order, constructed from informal rules and procedures that had been developed and reproduced in situ. Second, order at the carceragem was achieved through a plurality of police officer and (mostly) prisoner roles and responsibilities. Finally, Polinter was not only co-governed by its inmates, but its order was considered legitimate by nearly everyone that worked or was incarcerated there. Of importance to this legitimacy, the order achieved at the carceragem complied with popular inmate notions of resistance, mutual respect and exchange: to respect to be respected, to share in order to share, the CV representante geral explained it. These three features stand in contrast to the established sociology of prison life literature associated with the classic work of Gresham Sykes and Erving Goffman. In place of defects in an otherwise bureaucratic power, I had encountered a negotiated order that was broadly to everyone’s benefit, and in place of division and disorder among inmates and normative distance between inmates and officers, I had encountered examples of solidarity and reciprocity. Much of this reciprocity was forced in the sense that prisoners and police officers could not manage without it. However, Polinter’s order was not just instrumental. It also included moral values, for instance around the treatment of inmates’ families.
Springer eBooks, 2018
Brazil’s prisons have relied on inmates to collaborate and self-govern since its first modern pen... more Brazil’s prisons have relied on inmates to collaborate and self-govern since its first modern penitentiaries opened in the mid-nineteenth century. Staff shortages and co-governance, in other words, are defining features of the Brazilian prison system as much as inhumane living conditions. In the absence of guards and prison rules, inmates have developed codes of conduct that govern relations between and among themselves and their keepers to the tiniest detail. Prisoners refer to these norms of co-existence and co-survival as regras de convivencia (rules of conviviality), regras de convivio (rules of collective living) regras de proceder (rules of procedure) or simply as eticas (ethics) or disciplina (discipline). They refer to themselves in the singular: as one (cell, wing, cell block or prison-wide) coletivo (collective). This collective prisoner identity is rooted in the everyday realities of living in such proximity to one another, and by prisoners’ views of themselves as a repressed group of people in conflict with the law. As a result, the oppositional cultures that arise in Brazilian prisons, and to a lesser extent poor, urban areas, are less destructive than is often assumed. Codes relating to inmate solidarity, for example, invariably include measures aimed at supporting the least fortunate and avoiding conflict not only among common prisoners, but also with faxinas and prison staff. Where necessary, inmate codes of conduct are enforced through quasi-legal systems of dispute resolution that, in states with more advanced prison gang systems, invariably aim to adhere to principles of procedural fairness and substantive justice. Equally significant, prisoners that rise through the ranks of inmate hierarchies are usually those with the most experience of prison and the best skills of communication and negotiation.
Justice, Power and Resistance
Since its founding, Convict Criminology (CC) has evolved into an international approach, group, o... more Since its founding, Convict Criminology (CC) has evolved into an international approach, group, organisation, and network with a relatively coherent set of objectives. Although little thought was put into CC’s development beyond the US, the original intent of CC was primarily to develop a network of individuals who were united around its core ideas. Due to both the constraints of international travel for ex-convicts and the financial burden for people to travel, originally it made best sense for people interested in the CC perspective to meet at the local level. Over time, because of advances in telecommunication platforms like Facetime, Skype, and Zoom, members of the CC network realised that meeting face-to-face on a regular basis was not necessary. Thus, the importance of local or even national approaches to CC were not necessary. This paper briefly examines the international components of CC and the authors’ views that, while individual country groups of CC members may have been...
Author's copy. In Sozzo, M. (Ed.) (2022) Power and Prisons in Latin America (pp.329-363), London:... more Author's copy. In Sozzo, M. (Ed.) (2022) Power and Prisons in Latin America (pp.329-363), London: Palgrave Macmillan Most humane settings in corrections happen to be organised democratically… through participative management and shared decision-making, so that staff (and inmates, in the case of prison programmes) can develop a sense of ownership and a feeling of having a stake in the welfare and survival of the community they have helped to shape. (Toch 2006: 2) When I arrived back at the semi-open unit of APAC de Itaúna men's prison in Minas Gerais, an argument had just broken out in the workshop. Robson, a member of the prison's Sincerity and Solidarity Council (the CSS or the Council), had approached Daniel at the end of the working day to escort him back to his cell as punishment for having only that morning refused to stand up for Christian prayers. Both prisoners had to be physically restrained by their peers after Daniel picked up a metal rod and Robson refused to back down. The CSS president immediately called for a disciplinary hearing, before heading off to inform the governor. While they were waiting to start the proceedings, the other council members gathered to discuss the incident and agreed that Daniel was the main culprit. On his return, the president informed them the governor took the view Robson should not have risen to Daniel's challenge and that both prisoners needed to return to the closed unit. Most Council members disagreed, insisting that the governor was partly to blame, having overridden their decision that morning to confine Daniel to his cell during the daytime as well as the evening. According to the prison's disciplinary code, Daniel should not have lost his right to work for such a minor offence as disobeying orders. Nonetheless, they argued that the governor should not have interfered with a CSS decision, and in any case had not taken into consideration that Daniel, who had been an enemy of Robson since childhood, was bound to use the fact he had completed a hard day's work (and so under any other circumstances would now deserve to spend his evening in association rather than be sent to bed early) as excuse for argument. Since arriving to commence my fieldwork two weeks earlier, I had already sensed that the governor's authority was compromised by the fact he was the first in APAC de Itaúna's by then 17-year history not to have himself previously been a prisoner. When the hearing commenced, all witnesses to the incident, including several Council members, claimed they had arrived at the scene too late to confirm that a weapon had indeed been raised. In his
Punishment and Society, 2021
The Portuguese empire brought inescapable violence to the indigenous communities of Brazil and to... more The Portuguese empire brought inescapable violence to the indigenous communities of Brazil and to those it enslaved. Throughout the centuries of colonial subjugation, driven by the Iberian monarchical traditions of hierarchy, militarism and moral crusade, 'just war' narratives were employed to legitimate the use of violent legal and extra-legal measures against enslaved peoples and others deemed unruly or rebellious and a threat to colonial order. Two centuries after independence, Brazil remains at war with its 'internal enemies'. Its justice practices continue to be characterised by colonial rationalisations. This paper illustrates the contemporary coloniality inherent in the carceral system from the moment of detention pre-trial through sentencing and imprisonment.
Shecaira, S.S. et al. (eds.) Criminologoa: Estudos em Homenagem ao Alvino Augusto de Sá (pp.475-498), Belo Horizonte: D'Placido
Convict Criminology is an international research-activist movement of which the first two named a... more Convict Criminology is an international research-activist movement of which the first two named authors are leading figures in the UK. It started in North America in the 1990s and has more recently emerged in Europe and, most lately South America. It focuses on collaborative teaching and learning. More generally, Convict Criminology aims to produce critical research that is grounded in first-hand accounts of prison life, as well as current and former prisoner-led academic engagement with prison authorities and activists: to bridge the gap between universities and prisoners through developing insider (in this case prisoner and former prisoner) perspectives in the discipline of Criminology. This chapter outlines the authors' efforts to develop such a collabora-tive research activist agenda between social scientists, prisoners, and former prisoners, and to support prisoners and former prisoners through higher education and into academic and criminal justice positions. It demonstrates further that participation in prison education not only also has the potential to transform Criminology, but also has the potential for significant institutional and societal impact. The projects described in this chapter provide prisoners with qualifications, opening up a range of opportunities and pro-social life choices. They are also specifically designed to engage prisoners in reflecting upon their experiences of crime and punishment, demonstrated in critical pedagogical and desistance-from-crime literature to be an effective means of challenging offenders' perceptions of themselves as antisocial citizens and figures of authority (such as prison staff) as enemies. Keywords Convict Criminology; research activism; collaborative knowledge production; prison education. Resumo A Criminologia dos Condenados é um movimento internacional de pesquisa ativismo do qual os dois primeiros autores são figuras de destaque no Reino Unido. Começou na América do Norte nos anos 90 e emergiu mais recentemente na Europa e ultimamante na América do Sul. Ele se concentra no ensino e aprendizagem colaborativo. De forma geral, a Convict Criminology tem como objetivo pesquisas críticas baseadas em contas da primeira mão da vida nas prisões, bem como envolvimento com autoridades penitenciários e ativistas de prisão liderado por prisioneiros e egressos: para preencher a lacuna entre universidades e prisioneiros através do desenvolvimento de perspectivas privilegiadas (neste caso, prisioneiro e ex-prisioneiro) na disciplina de Criminologia. Este capítulo descreve os esforços dos autores para desenvolver uma agenda ativista de pesquisa colaborativa entre cientistas sociais, prisioneiros e ex-prisioneiros, e apoiar prisioneiros e ex-prisioneiros através do ensino superior e entrar em cargos acadêmicos e de justiça criminal. Demonstra ainda que a participação na educação prisional não apenas tem o potencial de transformar a Criminologia, mas também o potencial de um impacto institucional e social significativo. Os projetos descritos neste capítulo fornecem aos presos qualificações, abrindo uma gama de oportunidades e opções de vida pró-sociais. Eles também são
Darke, S. (2018) Conviviality and Survival: Co-producing Brazilian Prison Order, London: Palgrave Macmillan. Portuguese version (forthcoming 2019): Convívio e Sobrevivência: Ordem Prisional em Cogovernança (trans: Karam, M.L.), Belo Horizonte: D'Placido.
Aresti, A. & Darke, S. (eds.) (2018) Twenty years of convict criminology, Journal of Prisoners on Prison, 27(2).
Special journal edition edited by me and Chris Garces
Oxford University Press eBooks, 2021
In 2010, the author completed an empirical fieldwork study of an overcrowded carceragem (police l... more In 2010, the author completed an empirical fieldwork study of an overcrowded carceragem (police lock-up; unit of holding cells) in Rio de Janeiro. It served as a detailed illustration of the futility of studying Brazilian prison order from the top down and from the outside in. Few police officers that worked at the carceragem (pseudonymised as Polinter) had delegated full responsibility for managing daily routines, prisoner and staff–prisoner relations to teams of trusty prisoners and inmate leaders on the two wings that made up its cell block. Trusty prisoners worked as administrators, janitors and guards. They were headed by former police officers, the most senior of who were referred to by other prisoners as Polinter’s administracao (administration) or chefia (management). Together with the wing inmate leaders, these two prisoners answered only to the governor and the general coordinator of Rio’s 16 carceragens. One of the most impressive things about governance at Polinter was almost identical systems of inmate representation operated on both wings, despite the fact prisoners held on the second wing, the seguro (insurance or vulnerable persons unit) did not consider themselves career criminals or their coletivo (the Povo de Israel: People of Israel) a criminal gang. The senior police officers (the governor and general coordinator) had instructed the Povo de Israel how to operate along the same lines as prisoners held on the other (CV) wing. Both wings had one representante da cela (cell representative) per cell and one representante geral (general representative). On both wings, prisoners’ families contributed to a caixinha (collection box), the proceeds of which were used to purchase common goods such as cooking equipment and toiletries. When disputes arose between prisoners held in the cell block or their codes of conduct were broken, representantes gathered together as a comissao (commission) to adjudicate and pass sentence. When they were unable to control a certain prisoner, representantes would inform the police he needed to be transferred to another carceragem. On both wings, most prisoners became representantes based on how long they had been there rather than the criminal reputation they had arrived with. Nor was there any real difference between the types of people that ended up serving time on the two wings, beside the fact prisoners in the seguro tended to be older, most having passed the age where they were expected to earn their living from the illicit economy and to be affiliated to a criminal gang. Prisoners were allocated to the CV wing based on where they lived rather than their being actively involved in gang activity. A number of key features of the balance of power and authority at the carceragem could be generalised to the wider Brazilian prison system. First, while the senior police officers retained the final word on how Polinter was governed, the carceragem effectively operated under a customary rather than legalised order, constructed from informal rules and procedures that had been developed and reproduced in situ. Second, order at the carceragem was achieved through a plurality of police officer and (mostly) prisoner roles and responsibilities. Finally, Polinter was not only co-governed by its inmates, but its order was considered legitimate by nearly everyone that worked or was incarcerated there. Of importance to this legitimacy, the order achieved at the carceragem complied with popular inmate notions of resistance, mutual respect and exchange: to respect to be respected, to share in order to share, the CV representante geral explained it. These three features stand in contrast to the established sociology of prison life literature associated with the classic work of Gresham Sykes and Erving Goffman. In place of defects in an otherwise bureaucratic power, I had encountered a negotiated order that was broadly to everyone’s benefit, and in place of division and disorder among inmates and normative distance between inmates and officers, I had encountered examples of solidarity and reciprocity. Much of this reciprocity was forced in the sense that prisoners and police officers could not manage without it. However, Polinter’s order was not just instrumental. It also included moral values, for instance around the treatment of inmates’ families.
Springer eBooks, 2018
Brazil’s prisons have relied on inmates to collaborate and self-govern since its first modern pen... more Brazil’s prisons have relied on inmates to collaborate and self-govern since its first modern penitentiaries opened in the mid-nineteenth century. Staff shortages and co-governance, in other words, are defining features of the Brazilian prison system as much as inhumane living conditions. In the absence of guards and prison rules, inmates have developed codes of conduct that govern relations between and among themselves and their keepers to the tiniest detail. Prisoners refer to these norms of co-existence and co-survival as regras de convivencia (rules of conviviality), regras de convivio (rules of collective living) regras de proceder (rules of procedure) or simply as eticas (ethics) or disciplina (discipline). They refer to themselves in the singular: as one (cell, wing, cell block or prison-wide) coletivo (collective). This collective prisoner identity is rooted in the everyday realities of living in such proximity to one another, and by prisoners’ views of themselves as a repressed group of people in conflict with the law. As a result, the oppositional cultures that arise in Brazilian prisons, and to a lesser extent poor, urban areas, are less destructive than is often assumed. Codes relating to inmate solidarity, for example, invariably include measures aimed at supporting the least fortunate and avoiding conflict not only among common prisoners, but also with faxinas and prison staff. Where necessary, inmate codes of conduct are enforced through quasi-legal systems of dispute resolution that, in states with more advanced prison gang systems, invariably aim to adhere to principles of procedural fairness and substantive justice. Equally significant, prisoners that rise through the ranks of inmate hierarchies are usually those with the most experience of prison and the best skills of communication and negotiation.
Justice, Power and Resistance
Since its founding, Convict Criminology (CC) has evolved into an international approach, group, o... more Since its founding, Convict Criminology (CC) has evolved into an international approach, group, organisation, and network with a relatively coherent set of objectives. Although little thought was put into CC’s development beyond the US, the original intent of CC was primarily to develop a network of individuals who were united around its core ideas. Due to both the constraints of international travel for ex-convicts and the financial burden for people to travel, originally it made best sense for people interested in the CC perspective to meet at the local level. Over time, because of advances in telecommunication platforms like Facetime, Skype, and Zoom, members of the CC network realised that meeting face-to-face on a regular basis was not necessary. Thus, the importance of local or even national approaches to CC were not necessary. This paper briefly examines the international components of CC and the authors’ views that, while individual country groups of CC members may have been...
Social Science Research Network, 2016
Portuguese Abstract: Esse capitulo tem como co-autores criminologos do Reino Unido e do Brasil; o... more Portuguese Abstract: Esse capitulo tem como co-autores criminologos do Reino Unido e do Brasil; o primeiro e um dos poucos pesquisadores do Norte familiarizados com a literatura latino-americana sobre prisoes e que desenvolveram pesquisas in loco. A seu turno, a segunda autora se inclui no tambem relativamente pequeno clube de pesquisadores latino-americanos sobre prisoes com publicacoes em ingles. Os autores colaboraram anteriormente na publicacao de dois artigos sobre prisoes brasileiras (Darke 2014a; Darke e Karam 2012). Agora, ampliam seu objeto de analise, explorando o que veem como aspectos-chave das prisoes e da vida prisional na America Latina como um todo. Juntamente com as edicoes especiais recentemente produzidas por Global Prisons Research Network (Focaal 2014), Cheliotis (South Atlantic Quarterly 2014), e Hathazy e Muller (Crime, Law and Social Change 2014), esperamos dar uma contribuicao significativa para a reducao das lacunas do conhecimento academico no hemisferio norte sobre as prisoes latino-americanas. Atentos a nossa audiencia alvo, onde possivel, citamos trabalhos de estudiosos sobre prisoes latino-americanas, publicados ou traduzidos para o ingles. Ate onde temos noticia, alem de Ungar e Magaloni (Ungar 2003; Ungar e Magaloni 2009) somos os primeiros cientistas sociais a produzir tal analise regional em qualquer lingua.English Abstract: This chapter is co-authored by criminologists from the United Kingdom and Brazil. The first named author is one of just a handful of Northern researchers to have familiarised themselves with Latin American prisons literature and conducted fieldwork in Latin American prisons. The second named author similarly joins a relatively small club of Latin American prison researchers to have published in English. The authors have previously collaborated in publishing two articles on Brazilian prisons (Darke 2014a; Darke and Karam 2012). Here we broaden our object of analysis and explore what we perceive to be the key features of prisons and prison life in Latin America as a whole. Alongside our more general aim to provide an overview of prisons and prison life, in this chapter we draw particular attention to two paradigms of globalised crime control that quite clearly have particular resonance in Latin America: those of criminal justice militarisation and, quite the opposite of rehabilitation, securitisation of the prison environment. In the first half of the chapter we chart the extraordinary rise in Latin American prison populations over the past two decades, as well as deteriorating prison conditions, and question the extent to which the region's prison systems continue to adhere to international human rights norms (if they had ever adhered to these norms). We turn our attention to the daily lives of prison inmates and staff in the second half of the chapter. Here our focus shifts onto the self-governing nature of Latin American prisons.
Revista brasileira de ciências criminais, 2014
PRESENTACIÓN / 3-5 COYUNTURA • Ajuste y desbarajuste: la implosión de Alianza País y el recambio ... more PRESENTACIÓN / 3-5 COYUNTURA • Ajuste y desbarajuste: la implosión de Alianza País y el recambio político en Ecuador / 7-21 Edison Hurtado Arroba • Conflictividad socio política: Marzo-Junio 2017 / 23-28 TEMA CENTRAL • "Silencios legales: las cárceles ecuatorianas de (súper) máxima seguridad" / 29-51 Chris Garcés • Las prisiones de América Latina / 53-71 Sacha Darke, Maria Lúcia Karam • La vida en entornos penitenciarios: gestión de la maternidad en la cárcel de mujeres del Inca y en la regional Cotopaxi / 73-85
Social Science Research Network, Aug 2, 2014
Brazilian prisons are notoriously under-resourced, but at the same time relatively orderly places... more Brazilian prisons are notoriously under-resourced, but at the same time relatively orderly places. In circumstances of material deprivation and acute staff shortage, inmates and officers are left to cobble together customary orders in which prisoners are required to take on the role of janitors, in some prisons even guards. Meanwhile, prison wings are often left in the hands of inmate hierarchies, sometimes managed by prison authorities, but more often left to develop organically, sometimes under the influence of gangs. Less well known are 30 or so NGO administered, faith-based prisons that have opened over the past forty years, mostly in the state of Minas Gerais. These prisons take state abandonment, inmate collaboration and self-governance as their starting points. They operate without state presence and are managed by prisoners, former prisoners and local volunteers. Their vision is one of community self-governance, of community-facilitated rehabilitation.
Social Science Research Network, Aug 2, 2014
Focaal, Mar 1, 2014
Brazilian prisons are typically crowded and poorly resourced, yet at the same time may be active ... more Brazilian prisons are typically crowded and poorly resourced, yet at the same time may be active places. Of particular interest to the sociology of prisons is institutional reliance on inmate collaboration and self-ordering, not only to maintain prison routines, but, in the most low-staffed prisons, security and prisoner conduct as well. This article explores the roles played by inmates in running one such penal institution, a men's police lockup in Rio de Janeiro. At the time of research the lockup had over 450 prisoners, but just five officers. Both on and off the wings inmates performed janitorial, clerical, and guard-like duties, mostly under the supervision not of officers but other prisoners. The lockup appeared to be operating under a relatively stable, if de facto and provisional order, premised on common needs and shared beliefs, and maintained by a hierarchy of prisoner as well as officer authority.
Oxford University Press eBooks, Jun 30, 2021
This chapter highlights instances of crime and justice that cross national borders. The chapter i... more This chapter highlights instances of crime and justice that cross national borders. The chapter is therefore concerned with how global economic, social, and political connections facilitate the organisation of crime and the coordination of justice. The chapter begins by outlining the scope of transnational criminology, looking at the theoretical concepts it employs and its defining characteristics. It then explores some of its major areas of research interest: state terror, drug trafficking, people smuggling, the trade in and dumping of toxic waste, and cybercrime. Finally, the chapter addresses two of the most prominent academic debates within and associated with transnational criminology: the extent to which transnational crime is hierarchical and organised, and the means by which the international community might best police it.
Springer eBooks, 2018
In January 2017, the legitimacy of the Brazilian prison system came under deep scrutiny following... more In January 2017, the legitimacy of the Brazilian prison system came under deep scrutiny following a series of violent encounters between rival gangs in the North of the country. Three incidences were particularly deadly. In the late afternoon of 1 January, prisoners affiliated to the Família do Norte (Northern Family: the FDN) gang took control of the closed unit of the Anísio Jobim complex in Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas. By the time prisoners handed the unit back to authorities the following morning, 56 prisoners were reported to have been killed, mostly on the seguro (insurance or vulnerable persons unit), which among its other inmates held 26 men affiliated to Brazil's largest gang, São Paulo's Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC). The estimated death toll later increased to 66 (Filho 2017). Some of the victims' bodies were mutilated. Severed heads were put on display to lay the FDN's mark on the PCC territory. Mutilated bodies were thrown over the wall for media consumption. Reports from survivors suggested the killings spiralled out of control. In their frenzy, the killers also turned on sex offenders and police informants, most of who were also being held, as is normal practice, on the seguro, but some of who had chosen to stay on wings controlled by the FDN rather than risk being associated with the 3 The Northern Massacres
Darke, S. (2019) Sharing this Walk: An Ethnography of Prison Life and the PCC in Brazil by Biondi, K., reviewed in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books.
Theoretical Criminology, 5(2): 265-267, 2001
