The Penalties and Alternative measures (PAMs) are increasingly used by the Brazilian judiciary system. Given this context, the Sentencing Court of Execution and Alternative Penalties of the Espírito Santo State has established a partnership with the Vitória city hall that offers a training course on Human Rights entitled "Exercising Citizenship" as a way to accomplish the PAMs. This article is the result of a preliminary analysis of a research aiming at analyzing the performance of PAMs in Vitória, with special attention to this training course. The field diary was the main methodological tool, made from experiences in this course from October to November 2010. We were aware of the movements that indicated how the convicted understands / lives / thinks about the PMA, observing the rigid forms, instituted by the execution of the measures, but also - and this is what we try to give visibility - the instituting power of the course.
Alternatives to imprisonment; human rights; institutional analysis