This paper analyses Paulo Egídios intellectual and political trajectory. Although his work is hardly ever mentioned in the works on the history of social thought in Brazil, it was crucial for sociology at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, in São Paulo. He produced a pioneer work on Durkheim and developed free sociology courses. This article also includes some aspects of his political career as senator at the dawn of the Republic, when he took active part in the debate on the creation of a network of social control institutions and, especially, on the building of a new penitentiary for the state of São Paulo.
sociology; social control; prisons; penal law; Republican Brazil