Abstract

BARRETO, Mariana Leonesy da Silveira. Life after prison: the reflex of prison culture in free individuals. Psicol. cienc. prof. [online]. 2006, vol.26, n.4, pp. 582-593. ISSN 1414-9893.

The inmate life is marked by physical and psychological aggression. The submission to prison implies the assimilation of the prisonal culture, in a process described as prisionalization or institutionalization. Studied by sociologists, psychiatrists, philosophers and jurists, the phenomenon describes the way the inmates are molded by the institucional environment even after their release. Because of prisionalization, traditions, values, attitudes and habits are imposed by the jail population and they are apprehended by the interns as a natural way of adaptation, or even of survival. This work aims to analyze the impact of the prisional culture in former inmates. A bibliographical study was carried through, in order to perceive how and to which extent some aspects of the prisional culture interfere in the socialization of the individual. The transformations vary and affect the convicted in different levels, such as the habit of eating and acting and in the language structures. This impact can occur along many dimensions - some examples are the increase of aggressiveness or extreme passivity. One of the consequences is the high index of people who fall back in crime; according to INALUD/Brasil this index is equivalent to 70%.

Keywords : Prisionalization; Inmate; Total institution; Prisonal culture.

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