This article analyzes two instances of prisoner action and representation of prisoners in the São Paulo penitentiary system: the Solidarity Commissions and the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC). Our hypothesis is that obstruction of the mechanisms of inmate communication and representation legitimized by the authorities stimulated the formation of prisoner groups, which imposed themselves on the prison population through violence, while simultaneously seeking to 'legitimize' themselves through denunciations of the deficiencies in the prison system and through the codes of conduct formulated in the crime world. The analysis draws from the national and international literatures on prisoner groups, as well as material from official documents and the press.
Punishment; Prison; Human rights; Democratization; Prison dynamics; PCC