A lost critical juncture: COVID-19 in Brazilian prisons

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is a lost critical juncture to the criminal justice system. It offered permissive conditions to criminal justice reform and the National Council of Justice’s Recommendation 62 is an example of this movement, advising judges to de-incarcerate the prison population at health risk. But this movement for the protection of rights of people in prisons was not followed by productive conditions of reform that could de-entrench judicial practices. Modern criminal rationality, fully accepted among judges, favors the "disappearance" of concrete people from decision-making processes that determine whether one should entry or leave prison facilities.

Keywords:
Modern criminal rationality; institutional reform; prison system