Abstract
The presented article aims to analyze the political rationality that governs the Brazilian prison system in the actuality. To this end, reports of inspections in Brazilian penal establishments made between 2011 and 2012 by the National Council for Criminal and Penitentiary Policy (CNPCP) were taken as the research object. The analysis of the overcrowding of the inmate population made it possible to infer that the logic is not limited to prisons, but exists within the society instead, particularly directed at those at the margin of production and consumption. Therefore the prison as observed is the effect and it retains its function of reinforcing this rationality.
Keywords:
crime; prison psychology; public policies; social issues