Surviving through the Convívio (original) (raw)

Springer eBooks, 2018

Abstract

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.

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