São Paulo's prison population has grown sharply. More than 30% of the country's prisoners are found in the 154 prison establishments in the state. The policy of decentralizing prisons and mass incarceration focuses on people accused of property and drug-related crimes, typically young, male and living in urban peripheries. The article explores the repercussions of mass incarceration resulting from the norms and moralities governing prison life, especially the collaboration between prison administrations, inmates and their families in managing the daily life of the prison. This collaboration extends beyond the physical limits of the prisons, influencing the mechanisms determining incarceration and the increase in prison populations. The study observed negotiations between the administrations and organized groups of inmates and their families towards the shared goal of maintaining internal order to enable the work involved in penitentiary practices. The intensification of centralized forms of repressive social control is counterbalanced by the complementary opposition of a diffuse social control, grounded in the security procedures shared among the agents participating in the management of prison life.
Prisons; São Paulo; Punishment; Education in prisons; Social control