Incarcerated Activity: The Work of Psychologists in Prisons

• Autor(a) principal: Monteiro, Rodrigo Padrini
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: de Araújo, José Newton Garcia, de Freitas, João César, Hashizume, Cristina Miyuki, Gonçalves, Júlia, Tolfo, Suzana da Rosa
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Psicologia (Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie. Online)
• Texto Completo: http://editorarevistas.mackenzie.br/index.php/ptp/article/view/15510
• topic: psychology; prison system; occupational health clinics; human rights; ethics; psicología; sistema penitenciario; clínicas del trabajo; derechos humanos; principio moral; psicologia; sistema prisional; clínicas do trabalho; direitos humanos; ética

In Brazil, the presence of psychology in prisons was established by the Criminal Sentence Execution Act, in 1984, and it was intensified in the past three decades. In the paper, the results of a study are discussed to understand the activity of psychologists in the prisons in Minas Gerais, based on Clinical Approaches to the Work. We performed a qualitative research, with content analysis of documents, observations in five prisons and interviews with fourteen psychologists who work in these prisons.  We verified that the role of Psychology in prisons has been controversial, with different institutional intersections resulting from the security and punishment logic, and which seems to frequently oppose professional ethical principles. The institutional demand for classifying prisoners overlaps with the monitoring of rehabilitation programs, set forth by law. This scenario, worsened by the shortage of professionals, results in obstructions in the activity, the distress of the worker, trivialization of the violation of rights and uncritical adhesion to the repressive mechanism of the institution.