ABSTRACT
The aim of this work was to analyze the paradigms that permeate prison education, discussing how they present themselves in the current neoliberal and conservative capitalist order. The methodology comprised a bibliographical study, based on authors who analyze the implementation of educational and penitentiary systems in Brazil, and a documental study, with an examination of documents produced by the National Penitentiary Department and laws and regulations that regulate the supply of prison education. The results showed that, despite education playing an important role in terms of guaranteeing rights and exercising citizenship, its implementation in the Brazilian reality has been permeated by an elitist and privatist perspective that reinforces socially constructed inequalities. Considering the vertical and hierarchical relationships produced from class, race/ethnicity and gender inequalities, prison is used as an instrument for maintaining power and repressing undesirable social groups, based on oppression systems that are articulated with the structures classism, racism, patriarchy, and sexism. The results demonstrated the importance of developing a prison education based on the pillars of democracy and citizenship, as well as the implementation of extrication policies, in the sense of building a free, fair, and more egalitarian society.
Keywords
State; Incarceration; Prison education; Neoliberalism; Conservatism