A Modernização das Prisões

A instituição prisional surge como um símbolo e uma esperança de modernidade. Refúgio de ressocialização para aqueles que ponham em causa as regras de civilidade que permite a vida urbana e em sociedade; garantia de igualdade formal no tratamento de toda a transgressão e de todo o transgressor, através de um sistema de transformação em tempo de prisão da culpa abstracta dos crimes cometidos em concreto ; espaço de investimento filantrópico e de espírito de solidariedade para com os seres humanos caídos, digamos assim . A institucionalização moderna das prisões sustentou-se num movimento de civilização a favor de políticas judiciárias racionalistas e humanistas de aplicação teoricamente universal que, na leitura de Foucault (1975), projectou a ideia do panopticon, tal como Bentham a apresentou, tomando-o como o modelo conceptual prático orientador das formas normalizadas de execução de penas. Donde decorreu, ainda segundo os ensinamentos de Foucault, a necessidade de arquitectar um sistema de espaços institucionais susceptíveis de albergarem por um lado tribunais abertos ao público, ao contrário das práticas pré-modernas, e por outro lado formas de execução de penas em privado, também ao invés do que era vulgar anteriormente.Prisons as social institutions withstand change yet, at the same time, they change as attempts are made for them to fulfil their legal charge: punishment and rehabilitation. Prison systems strive to make the modern utopian panopticon work, and to this end they have deal with all kinds of internal and external, organised and unplanned, social and economic interference. Research into the history of prisons also reflects on the country and spirit of the time within the context of the course of civilisation. At times in the sense of security, as was the case during the first half of the twentieth century, ravaged by two world wars and totalitarian regimes in Europe which confronted peoples, classes and states so that they mutually excluded each other from access to scant recourses. At times for humane reasons by means of policies of security, integration and social solidarity as in the case of philanthropic reform movements in the 19th century, and the setting up of a Welfare State in western nations during the Cold War in the 20th century. This theoretical framework was set up as an aid to comparative research, taking into account the different histories in the development of other prison institutions in Europe. An understanding of what different national penal systems do should reveal how in each case the defined policy aims organise and mobilise material and human resources, inside and outside prison. Relatives and friends of inmates, companies that supply goods and services to prisons, prison guards, public opinion, political systems, prison professions, the way the media covers matters of security and movements that support human rights, as well as many other factors, agents and social agendas influence life in prisons at every moment of history and in each place.Unidade de Investigação em Ciências Sociais (UNICS