A EDUCAÇÃO LIBERTA: EDUCAÇÃO PRISIONAL COMO FERRAMENTA DE RESSOCIALIZAÇÃO E REINSERÇÃO SOCIAL

Abstract

This Course Conclusion Paper analyzes education as a tool for the resocialization and social reintegration of individuals deprived of their liberty in Brazil, investigating whether, in practice, it functions as an effective instrument or merely a distant ideal. Brazil holds the third-largest prison population worldwide, a scenario that reveals the ineffectiveness of resocialization policies, overcrowding, and high rates of criminal recidivism. The sentence, which should prepare the individual to return to society, fails in its purpose when the prison system operates as a mechanism of institutionalized violence, perpetuating a cycle of exclusion. Despite education being a constitutional and fundamental right to human dignity, its application in prison faces structural obstacles such as a lack of resources, the precariousness of prison units, and selectivity in access to public policies. However, mechanisms such as sentence remission through study and reading have been highlighted, although their effectiveness is limited to a restricted portion of the prison population, many of whom have low literacy or are illiterate. The study, which addresses the situation of the Brazilian and Paraíba prison systems, discusses the importance of education for human development, citizenship, and social reintegration. It also acknowledges the limits imposed by a system that, by its nature, operates more on the logic of punishment and exclusion than on that of emancipation. The research concludes that, although education in the prison system has the potential to be a real tool for resocialization, it remains a distant ideal from daily practice due to a lack of public investment and the prevalence of a strictly punitive logic, which, instead of preparing individuals for social reintegration, perpetuates violence and exclusion. For education to fulfill its function, it is necessary for the State to implement it effectively, replacing the logic of punishment with that of emancipation, transforming the prison into an environment for the reconstruction of lives.