Abstract
The abandonment of women in prison has been documented by Brazilian researchers. The most highlighted absence is that of men whose female partners are incarcerated. Not by chance, no specific research on these subjects was found in national or international scientific literature. Aiming to remedy, to some extent, this bibliographical gap, we investigated male partners who attend two penitentiaries in visiting days. Through gender lenses, we aimed to understand the meanings attributed by them in order to maintain their relationships with the imprisoned partners. To achieve that, we conducted an ethnography in the prison-visiting queues. In data collection, 26 male partners who regularly attend female correctional facilities were identified, four of which have been interviewed. Although these numbers are still low, they allow the problematization of the category “abandonment” within female prisons. Concerning the interviewees’ trajectories, we perceived the simultaneous exercise of hegemonic and non-hegemonic masculinities. All of them are providers, financially stable and substantially older than their partners. In addition to that, the four of them were, in some way, caretakers before their partners’ imprisonment. For them, visiting the female prison represents love, duty and care. At the same time, we understand that these relationships represent the possibility of exercising control and male power over these imprisoned women, since they all have lives marked by family and social frailties.
Prisons; Gender; Masculinity; Conjugality