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At the intersection of Travessa de São Pedro and Rua da Rosa in Bairro Alto, Lisbon, you can see a dark green gate that leads to a wide corridor with a concave roof. Sitting on a chair next to the open gate, on the left side of the corridor, a man is holding a mobile phone in his hands, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. Directly opposite, on the right side of the corridor, a security guard records the personal information of people who pass through the entrance to number eight.
It is the House of Impact, located in the former Convent of São Pedro de Alcântara, which is now home to entrepreneurship projects and social initiatives. The individual who was waiting for us sitting at the gate is called Paulo* and is a beneficiary of one of them, reshape, a non-profit organization whose main mission is to “guarantee the dignified reintegration of all people who are or have been imprisoned”, as can be read in the website.
The clock strikes 14:04 p.m. and Reshape's Social Support Manager, Catarina Medeiros, welcomes us and directs us to a room on the 1st floor. For those unfamiliar, walking through the floors of Casa do Impacto is like exploring a maze of corridors. The artists, startups, entrepreneurs and activists who share the space ensure that silence never inhabits the walls of the former convent.
The room we sit in resembles a large elevator with a window on the front wall. This is the second time we have spoken to Paulo, and his tone of voice, louder and more confident than when we first met, conveys the idea that he feels more comfortable. The weekend before our conversation, in July, Paulo had just turned 44, and his resume reflects his many experiences.
At the age of 16, he began working as an electrician's assistant, but decided to enroll in a metalwork course and for the next six years he was employed by a company that built aluminium frames for tents and awnings for campsites. When he dropped out, he enlisted in the army because his uncle was in the military and encouraged him to apply. He joined the Rangers, where he worked as a sniper, but refused to carry out the second mission he was assigned, in Kosovo, and was forced to leave.
After the military, he returned to the uniform, this time as a security guard, but the company he worked for went bankrupt and so he decided to change direction. “I tried the hotel industry,” he says, “I started in the kitchen, then as a waiter, at the counter, and as a waitress. barman”, however, he ended up giving up. He returned to the construction industry, but the work was hard and he opted to do production work at the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, in Lisbon. He is currently unemployed.
In October 2018, Paulo was sentenced to a four-year prison term and spent two months awaiting placement in a Prison Establishment (EP) at the Lisbon Judicial Police. He was eventually placed in EP of Caxias, where he went through “Vietnam”, the name given by inmates to the cells on the ground floor, where inmates wait to be transferred to the upper floors. After his conviction, “Paulo” was replaced by “137”. “When I was convicted, they immediately called me by my number, before that they still used my name”, he confesses.
After his time in “Vietnam”, Paulo went up to the 3rd floor, to the “four-person cells”, where “it’s quieter” and “it’s not as dirty because four people clean the cell properly”, he explains. He didn’t stay on this floor for more than two months, because he was one of those chosen to work distributing meals and cleaning, so he was transferred to the 2nd floor. “I shared a cell with seven people, but it was very big, it was the workers’ cell”, he says. Gardeners, electricians, maintenance workers, food distributors and cleaners were some of the occupations of the residents on this floor.
At around 8:30 a.m., he would get up and distribute breakfast to the inmates on the 3rd floor. When he had finished, he would return to his cell and eat his meal. At 11:30 a.m., it was time to collect and distribute the lunches, and the routine was the same. At 17:30 p.m., the procedure was repeated for dinner. At 19 p.m., all the cells were closed until the following morning, but Paulo swept and washed the floor, so he was closed later, between 19:30 p.m. and 20 p.m.
In the introduction to the work Are Prisons Obsolete?, published in 2003, Angela Davis argues that, for the majority of the population worldwide, prison is considered an inevitable and permanent institution. The author argues that it is taken for granted to such an extent that it is difficult to imagine a reality without it. However, deprivation of liberty has not always been the predominant form of punishment for people who commit crimes.
Prison as a form of penal law as it is understood today is relatively recent, and in the Portuguese case, it dates back to the 19th century. However, places of confinement have always existed. Alexandra Esteves, Assistant Professor with Habilitation in the Department of History of the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Minho, explains that, for the Greeks in Classical Antiquity, prison already existed and played a coercive role.
The professor asserts that the “Greeks already tended to put those who had debts in prison” and, in the case of the Romans, prison had, above all, a custody purpose. “[The Romans] had the habit of locking people up during the period in which Justice was acting, it was the place where people awaited the application of their sentence”, she reiterates. This purpose of prison as a waiting and custody space would continue until the 18th century.
In the Middle Ages and Modern Age, the most common punishments (for the working classes) consisted of exile, public labor, galley work, death and corporal punishment. Esteves mentions that, in the 16th and 17th centuries, “public spectacles based on physical suffering and the application of martyrdom” were common and that “public executions were the true moments of Justice” in which the aim was, above all, to punish the body, with “an educational purpose and a deterrent effect: the aim was to make an example of the criminal”.
According to the French author and philosopher Michel Foucault, it was from the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century that corporal punishment and torture began to be inflicted less and less and confinement began to emerge as the preferred method of punishment. In the work Discipline and Punish: Birth of Prison (1975), the author reinforces that, in this period, the body ceases to be the main target of penal repression and the punishment of convicts as a “spectacle” or entertainment begins to disappear.
The researcher from the University of Minho justifies this change based on the development of a “greater sensitivity towards the body and others”, which meant that torture and public spectacles began to “be seen as something inhumane”. The debate surrounding the use of deprivation of liberty as a form of punishment therefore arises when people begin to think about crime in a different way.
In Portugal, the use of deprivation of liberty as the predominant form of punishment began with the establishment of liberalism. However, Maria João Vaz, professor and director of the History Department at ISCTE, notes that there were two distinct periods: the theoretical defense of the idea and its practical application.
The historian explains that, even in the final period of Absolutism, during the reign of D. Maria I, at the end of the 1820th century, and then with the regency of D. João VI, the debate on the application of deprivation of liberty was already circulating in the country. However, it was only with the Liberal Revolution of 1834 and the definitive victory of liberalism, in XNUMX, that “the idea that it is necessary to end the punishments that were called infamous, degrading and cruel” and replace them with “another penal regime that has the objective of regeneration” came to fruition, explains Vaz.
It was also with liberalism that equality before the law began to be established for all. Alexandra Esteves explains that, before the liberal victory, justice was applied differently depending on the social status of the individual. The same crime, committed by people of different social status, would lead to a different sentence and, in other cases, the same sentence was applied differently. “People who belonged to the Third Estate [the people] had a harsher and more public justice system”, says the professor.
In 1852, the first Portuguese Penal Code was published and, from the second half of the XNUMXth century onwards, there was a greater attempt to reform and adapt prisons to the requirements they were supposed to fulfil, namely the rehabilitation of the offender. “The idea was not to create a space where the person was detained and nothing was done”, but rather the person was detained so that “work could be done, together with them, on their recovery to live in society”, explains Maria João Vaz.
According to Foucault, the penalties attributed would be less motivated by the desire to punish and chastise the convicted and would begin to focus more on correction and the “expiation of the evils” of the delinquents. In Discipline and Punish: Birth of Prison, the author argues that in modern justice we are beginning to see the growth of a feeling of shame associated with the task of punishing. The philosopher writes that the cruelty of the punishments applied began to be equated with the crimes committed by the convicted, when they did not exceed the cruelty of the crimes themselves.
Despite its progressive nature, Alexandra Esteves argues that the idea that it is possible to regenerate individuals who have committed a crime is associated with the valorization of work. The idea, which began to prevail in Europe in the 16th century, that “undesirable individuals in society” could be locked up and then “subjected to a certain discipline and work habits in order to rehabilitate them and extract the respective economic benefits”, served as an example for what the mode of operation of prisons could be, explains the professor.
On February 28, 1860, the then Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs and Justice, João Baptista da Silva Ferrão de Carvalho Martens, presented a Proposal for a Law on Judicial Organization to the Chamber of Deputies. In the report that preceded the presentation of the proposal, the minister wrote, regarding regeneration, that “the amendment of the guilty presents a spectacle more appropriate to the civilization we enjoy than those old examples in which humanity was brought down to the lowest scale of degradation. Punishment, disconnected from the idea of rehabilitation, degrades the man who suffers it, and the society that imposes it”.
This process and hypothesis of the delinquent's regeneration was associated with introspection, work, education and religious practice. According to Vaz, it was believed that work allowed a person to free themselves from their vices and foster discipline. Education was also central, since it was believed that an enlightened spirit, in principle, would not go down the wrong path. Religion, on the other hand, despite the secular spirit of the liberals, allowed the fostering of values that would enable recovery for life in society.
In the 19th century, men and women did not have the same social or legal status, so the way in which the two genders were thought of in relation to work, family and education was different. The same applied to criminal activity.
From the outset, it was considered that men and women had a different propensity for criminal activity. Maria João Vaz points out that women were more associated with prostitution, although the activity was not always criminalized, with abortions, infanticides and poisonings, and were not as involved in physical aggression or violent crimes. “It is a stereotypical construction of the way women are viewed, their character and the role attributed to them” because it implies that “when women kill, they do so in a covert manner”.
According to Alexandra Esteves, the fact that women were more associated with values such as honesty, virtue and chastity meant that “a woman who entered the world of crime was a tainted woman, who carried more of the stigma of crime”. In this way, women were considered “a simultaneously fragile and dangerous being” associated with the “image of a tempting woman responsible for some immoral act”, explains the researcher.
On the other hand, women’s subordinate status also contributed to their lack of accountability. “Women were more often excused because they were considered less erudite and less capable,” says Vaz, and so their criminal activities were often attributed to the fact that they were less educated. However, the capacity for regeneration was equally valid for men and women.
According to the data contained in the website According to the Assembly of the Republic, the last execution of a woman took place in 1772 and, in the city of Lagos, in 1846, the last execution of a man took place. However, it was not until July 1, 1867 that the death penalty for civil crimes was abolished in Portugal. For political crimes, the death penalty had been abolished in 1852 and, in 1911, it would be abolished for military crimes.
In February 1867, Barjona de Freitas, then Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs and Justice, presented a bill on prison penal reform in the Chamber of Deputies, which contemplated the abolition of the death penalty for civil crimes. The minister stated that the death penalty “pays blood with blood, kills but does not correct, avenges but does not improve, and, by usurping God’s prerogatives of life and closing the door to repentance, it extinguishes all hope of redemption in the heart of the condemned and opposes the fallibility of human justice with the darkness of irreparable punishment.”
Despite being a historic milestone, there is disagreement regarding the impact of the abolition of the death penalty on the Portuguese prison system. For Alexandra Esteves, this was not significant, since “since the Modern Age, our monarchs liked to be seen as benevolent and merciful”, so despite there being many capital punishments, the monarch often commuted the sentence. In these cases, exile was widely used, especially due to the interest in using it to colonize the territories of the Portuguese empire.
In turn, for Maria João Vaz, the abolition of the death penalty was a pioneering milestone that was very different from other European countries. “At the time, Portugal did not have the elements that, as a rule, occur in countries that have abolished the death penalty: economic development, in the case of Portugal it was chronically underdeveloped; and democratization, because liberalism is not democracy”, she states.
Unlike countries like Italy, Portugal has never backed down from this decision. “Even in difficult periods, such as the regicide and the dictatorship, [the death penalty] was never reintroduced,” explains Vaz.
Despite the regenerative intentions, the prisons of the 19th century continued to have the same characteristics as in previous centuries. According to Esteves, they were “fetid dungeons, without the minimum conditions of habitability, so there was no space for the rehabilitation of individuals”.
A General Directorate of Reinsertion and Prison Services (DGRSP) writes in his website that the practical results of the idea of social support for prisoners were incipient until the end of the Second World War. The DGRSP also highlights the fact that the penal system adopted the principle of resocialization through the prison reform of 1936, which was later included in the Penal Code, ordering the purposes of executing prison sentences, in 1954.
One of the concepts introduced by the 1936 prison reform was the “re-education” of political and social prisoners. However, it was also considered that there were delinquents who were not “re-educatable”. During the Salazar dictatorship, prisons were increasingly used to imprison political opponents of the regime. The Caxias prison, where Paulo was imprisoned, was one of the prisons used for this purpose.
Today, the gap between rehabilitation intentions and actual practice continues to appear significant. Historians, researchers, sociologists, activists, social reintegration professionals and prison guards have one thing in common: the belief that the current prison system is unable and is not fulfilling the objectives and purposes assigned to it by law.
O Article 27 da Constitution of the Republic establishes the right to freedom and security. However, paragraph three of the same article defines in which situations it is foreseen that the right to freedom, although fundamental, may be restricted.
The association between freedom and security already emerged in 1822 Constitution, with the triad “Freedom, Security and Property”. Cláudia Santos, PhD in Criminal Law and member of the Socialist Party in the Assembly of the Republic, explains that “all criminal justice seeks to reconcile freedom with security” with the aim of “finding a point at which none of the conflicting purposes are completely annihilated”.
Despite the possibility of deprivation of liberty, the Constitution establishes, in its Article 24, that “in no case shall there be the death penalty” and in its Article 30 It is established that “there can be no penalties or security measures depriving or restricting liberty of a perpetual nature or of unlimited or indefinite duration”.
In turn, the Criminal Code Portuguese establishes, in its Article 40, the purposes of penalties and security measures. Paragraph one stipulates that the “application of penalties and security measures aims to protect legal assets and the reintegration of the offender into society”. Cláudia Santos attests that this resocializing ideology is a tradition in Portuguese penitentiary law.
The professor of Criminal Law at the University of Coimbra, whose contract is currently suspended due to her duties as a member of parliament, explains that until the 1982 Penal Code, Portuguese law did not specifically indicate the purpose of penalties. Some authors defended the purpose of punishment and retribution, while others favored resocialization. “In 1982, the legislator decided to make it clear that, in Portuguese law, the purposes are exclusively preventive,” she explains.
Article 40 of the Penal Code was later transposed into the Code of Execution of Sentences and Measures Depriving Liberty (CEPMPL), approved in October 2009, which establishes in its Article 2 of the chapter on “General principles” that the purposes of executing sentences aim at “the reintegration of the agent into society, preparing him to lead his life in a socially responsible manner, without committing crimes (…)”.
However, the MP believes that many citizens still do not understand the public interest in reintegrating people who are in prison. “It is in the interest of the entire community, because when the prisoner finishes serving his sentence, he returns to life in society”, she argues, and it is in “everyone’s interest that the person returns to life in freedom as reintegrated as possible”. Santos thus argues that reintegration is not defended solely taking into account the rights of prisoners, but because it is “useful to the whole of society”.
In addition to the purposes of executing sentences, the CEPMPL also stipulates the rights and duties of people who are in prison. Santos explains that at this level there has also been a legislative evolution towards resocialization. “Serving a prison sentence should only mean restricting freedom of movement and the prisoner should be able to maintain his other rights”, the deputy states, but, “in fact, there are a number of rights that end up being restricted”.
Cláudia Santos is an alternate member of Subcommittee on Social Reintegration and Prison Affairs and recognizes that, in relation to the right to work, “the number of inmates who want to work is greater than the number of vacancies available in prison workshops”.
Portugal is the second country in Europe where people who are in prison spend, on average, the longest time in prison. The data is contained in the Annual Criminal Statistics Report for the Council of Europe 2021, which indicate that only Azerbaijan, with an average of 34.6 months, exceeds the Portuguese figure of 31.4 months. The same report reveals that Portuguese incarceration rates, around 110.8 inmates per 101,8 inhabitants, are even higher than the European average, which is XNUMX inmates per XNUMX inhabitants.
At point nine of the Introduction In the Portuguese Penal Code it is possible to read that: “at the present time, the Code cannot fail to use prison. But it does so with the clear awareness that it is an evil that must be reduced to the necessary minimum and that its structure and regime must be harmonized as much as possible with the rehabilitation of the offenders to whom it is applied”.
Cláudia Santos explains that the 1982 Penal Code created a catalogue of alternative or substitute penalties that exist to replace prison sentences. “The criminal legislator, in Article 70, expresses a preference for non-custodial sentences”, says the MP, but adds that it is “true that we need to make progress with regard to the use of these alternative sentences”.
Marco Ribeiro Henriques, a lawyer and researcher at the Centre for Research and Development on Law and Society at NOVA University Lisbon, believes that there is currently an idea of severity among the Portuguese population that contributes to the greater punitiveness of the system. “In Portugal, we have great resistance to flexibility” because “although there are legal instruments to do so, conditional release is rarely granted in the first phase in which it is possible”, the researcher explains. He adds that “there is still a narrative, an institutional discourse and a practice that is out of step with the legal framework that currently exists and regulates the prison issue”.
Despite Portuguese incarceration rates being higher than the European average, Portugal is also on the list of 50 countries with low crime rates and high resilience to organized crime, among the 193 member states of the United Nations. The data is included in the report Global Organized Crime Index 2021, published by Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.
For Cláudia Santos, this is not a question of sensitivity, but rather a warning about society’s responsibility. “The application of more alternative sentences implies that a set of conditions must be met, such as providing services to the community,” she explains.
These cases presuppose that “the community is willing to have people who have recently left a prison to take care of the gardens or perform other tasks, and we have contact with them every day.” Santos argues that alternative sentences will be used more when the community is more willing to participate in resocialization efforts.
According to Dores, it has long been known that Portugal is a country where crime rates are low and that “there is no comparative reason for us to have the incarceration rates that we have”. However, it is not easy to explain the relationship between the two values. According to a study on the US, Vera Institute of Justice, published in 2017 and entitled The Prison Paradox: More Incarceration Will Not Make Us Safer, high incarceration rates are not synonymous with safer societies.
The study states that since 2000, the increasing use of incarceration has accounted for almost zero percent of the reduction in crime. The document indicates that 75 to 90 percent of the reduction in crime rates since the XNUMXs can be explained by other factors. It points to an aging population, rising wages and employment, and increased education as some of the factors associated with the reduction in crime and that, collectively, they explain the reduction in crime better than incarceration.
The document also highlights the fact that various studies have shown that high levels of incarceration can even contribute to an increase in crime. One of the reasons given is that imprisonment causes the breakdown of social and family ties that would otherwise prevent certain individuals from engaging in criminal activity, while also reducing the income of affected families. The study also indicates that, at an individual level, there is evidence to support the argument that serving a prison sentence increases the likelihood that an individual will resort to illegal activities again in the future.
These data are supported by the fact that factors such as unstructured family and social environments and economic difficulties are often recognized in people who are incarcerated. Marco Ribeiro Henriques points out that “the crimes that are most common in prison and that lead to more people being imprisoned come mainly from a lack of state intervention upstream”.
The lawyer adds that “the most disadvantaged people, those who are not well integrated or even not integrated at all, often do not choose to commit crime”, but are instead “led to a logic of survival that will result in criminal logic”.
There are 49 Prison Establishments (EP) in the national territory, classified according to the level of security (special, high and medium) and the respective degree of management complexity (high and medium). The EP of Monsanto is the only one classified as special security, that is, maximum security.
The CEPMPL constitutes the reference instrument for the functioning of the EPs and is regulated in the General Regulation of Prison Establishments. According to the website from the DGRSP, this document “guarantees uniformity and equality in the application of the regulations in force throughout the prison system”.
Despite recognizing the humanity of Portuguese legislation, Duarte Fonseca, Executive Director of Reshape, believes that the legislative document, which regulates the day-to-day running of a Portuguese EP, does not allow for the specific needs of each one to be met. “We have one [General Regulation] for 49 EPs, when the 49 are different,” he argues. Fonseca believes that “there is no solution that is the same or that works for everyone, [this is] the problem when we have a large or medium-scale system.”
The inadequacy of the Portuguese prison system in relation to the resocialization intentions contemplated by law is also one of the problems highlighted in relation to the management and operation of prisons. Researcher Marco Ribeiro Henriques believes that Portugal does not have “the appropriate structures for the humanist strategy that the State desires”.
The report Prison conditions in Portugal, published by European Prison Observatory, in 2020, reported that most prison buildings are aging. The authors of the document emphasize that, despite the inauguration of renovation programs in 2001 that would allow the modernization of the prison system, the financial crisis meant that, with the exception of Caxias and Carregueira, “all plans to build new prisons were interrupted and the decommissioning of old prison facilities was reversed”, it reads.
Although they have undergone some modifications over the decades, there are Portuguese EPs whose construction dates back to the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. From this period, mention can be made of the EP of Coimbra, built in 1889, whose configuration still follows Bentham's Panoptic System. In the second half of the XNUMXth century, the Monsanto Fort, currently Monsanto EP, which after renovation work in 2007 was classified as a Maximum Security EP, the only one in Portugal.
Sociologist Carlos Nolasco argues that Portugal's prison system should be reviewed. “Prisons have profiles in which the structures are not compatible with the aims of reintegration,” he reiterates. Nolasco believes that some of the existing prison buildings are not geared towards the current concept of Human Rights.
Sitting in one of the rooms on the first floor of Casa do Impacto, Paulo laughs as he places his hands on the table in front of him. He spreads them about twenty centimeters apart and points forward with his index fingers. “Sometimes, in the kitchen, there were rats this big,” he says, “they looked like rabbits.”
According to Paulo, objects would sometimes fall from the ceiling in the gym while the men were exercising. However, he was more often found in the prison library. “The library was the only place where it was quieter, it had a heater, it was well-kept, and I spent a lot of time there,” he confesses.
Portugal has already been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights due to the violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, relating to the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The case at issue was that of Daniel Petruscu, a Romanian citizen imprisoned in Portugal due to the poor conditions of the prisons where he served his sentence: the Pinheiro da Cruz prison and the Lisbon prison, in 2019. This year, two Portuguese citizens, Márcio Pereira and Diamantino da Silva, also received compensation for the inadequate conditions of their detention in the Coimbra prison.
The report Prison conditions in Portugal reports that Portuguese prisons often suffer from poor hygiene and health conditions. The document states that “the facilities are precarious and poorly maintained” and that “prisoners have to clean their cells with their own cleaning products purchased from the prison shop (when they can afford them)”.
Carlos Sousa, president of National Union of Prison Guards (SNCGP), confirms that “the conditions of confinement for some are the working conditions for others”. The Prison Guard, who has worked at the Porto Prison for about ten years, has also worked at the Linhó and Caxias Prisons. “Most of our vehicles have reached a million kilometers, and the keys we use and the weight of the doors we open are all working conditions”, he reiterates.
Sousa believes that some modernization efforts are being made, but the “prison system is very old”. The union president concludes that “as long as the Portuguese prison system is seen as a cost and not as an investment, we will continue to see these impoverished conditions, both for the Prison Guard Corps (CGP) and for the inmates”.
The quality of the food is also the target of criticism. “The chicken always came raw and poorly cooked because they defrost it and put it in the oven and it doesn’t cook,” says Paulo. The report Prison conditions in Portugal reveals that the amount of food offered is often “inadequate” and “the quality is very poor”. The document states that 4 euros per prisoner per day is the “amount allocated to the contracts of the companies responsible for the meals”, which are not subject to “any type of standards/quality control”.
Carlos Nolasco states that “what prisons often do is take away people’s dignity” through the lack of hygiene and sanitation conditions. “Although people are serving a punishment, this punishment is the deprivation of liberty, we cannot use this argument to violate other rights to a dignified life”, he argues.
Marco Ribeiro Henriques points out that there has been an effort on the part of the prison system to reverse these situations, but he believes that the existing gaps could result in “failure of the reintegration processes” and the increase in health issues. “Prison treatment needs to be humane, we are no longer on the level of retribution, the plan is now humanistic, based on the individual”, he states.
Along with the lack of hygiene and health conditions, overcrowding has become a frequent problem in Portugal. Alexandra Esteves explains that in the second half of the 19th century, prisons were mainly “large, overcrowded pavilions that far exceeded the buildings’ capacity” and that “many [prisons] had been operating in those conditions for centuries”.
In 1996 the Ombudsman referred, in his first Report on the Prison System, that the existing overcrowding constituted a “powerful obstacle to the adequate confinement of inmates”. According to the document, in that year, two prisons reached an occupancy rate of over 400 percent: the Guimarães prison (490%) and the Portimão prison (440%).
O Activity Report and Self-Assessment 2020 The DGRSP reports that the prison occupancy rate, at a national level, is around 87,1 percent. This figure has been decreasing since 2015, when the occupancy rate was around 114 percent, which shows that overcrowding has been showing positive progress in recent years.
However, the same report states that there are still hospitals whose occupancy levels exceed the capacity of the facilities. According to the document, in 2020, the Psychiatric and Mental Health Clinic (non-imputable) recorded an occupancy rate of around 107,1 percent and there were four hospitals with a high management level with an occupancy rate above one hundred percent. Meanwhile, 12 hospitals with a medium management level recorded these values.
The existing overcrowding means that in some prisons the provisions of the General Regulation for Prison Establishments regarding accommodation are not complied with. Paragraph one of the Article 197 The document establishes that “accommodation is always carried out in an individual cell”. Duarte Fonseca argues that “if I live in a cell with five or ten people, the degree of individuality is lost, and if I lose my individuality, I become a number”.
The Executive Director of Reshape believes that there is still a “long way to go” to put the legislation, designed in light of social reintegration, into practice.
O 2020 Ombudsman Report reported that the number of complaints made regarding the prison system had increased by eight percent compared to the previous year. Around 15 percent of the 170 complaints made were directly related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The document states that “access to health care, disciplinary action and assignment to a particular establishment remained the most frequent topics of complaint, with particular emphasis on the former”. The coordination between the prison system and the National Health System (SNS) is characterised as an “ever-present” problem. There were postponements of scheduled consultations and surgeries and delays in the first referral.
No 2021 Ombudsman Report it reads that “complaints filed about the prison system increased significantly (24%), representing the second highest figure in the last ten years”. Despite the decrease in complaints related to the covid-19 pandemic, access to health care remained the issue that gave rise to the largest number of complaints.
The lack of health professionals in the EP is also not a recent problem. Although the Ministry of Justice has announced, in December 2017, that the annual amount to be spent on providing health care in prisons and educational centers in the three-year period 2018-2020 would be four million euros, the problems persist. In April 2018, the SPECTATORS reported that there were only around 30 psychologists in prisons and that they earned around five euros gross per hour.
In turn, the Annual Criminal Statistics for the Council of Europe 2021 reveal that the suicide rate per 10 inmates in Portugal is the third highest in Europe. In first place is France, with 28 annual suicides in prison, followed by Latvia, with around 20, and then Portugal, with 18. In terms of mortality, Portugal ranks 5th, with around 66 deaths per 10 inmates. In 2019, according to the latest Activity Report and Self-Assessment According to the DGRSP, 75 deaths of inmates were recorded, 21 by suicide and 54 by illness.
O 2020 Homeland Security Annual Report highlights the existence of the integrated suicide prevention program, implemented in the EPs since 2010, but states that the “suicide figures confirm the pattern recorded in recent years”. 2021 Homeland Security Annual Report records 53 deaths of inmates in 2020, 11 of which were by suicide. The document reiterates that the “figures of deaths from disease continue to reflect the progressive aging of the prison population and the existence of diseases, with high morbidity, which affect some inmates upon entering the prison system”.
On the other hand, the existence of violence in EPs has also been highlighted as a problem. The 2020 Ombudsman Report indicated that “it is with concern that there has been a significant increase in complaints of physical violence, whether among inmates or especially with the participation of prison guards”. In the report for last year, the Ombudsman wrote that “the proportion of complaints against disciplinary actions and those relating to alleged situations of violence, whether among the prison population or due to the improper or excessive use of force by security staff, remained practically the same”.
At the Caxias Police Station, there was information next to the telephone booths with the numbers of entities that men who were incarcerated could call to request information or file a complaint. Although he had never experienced physical aggression from the CGP, Paulo witnessed situations involving other inmates while serving his sentence and believes that it may be unusual to file a complaint without the help of a lawyer.
“It’s difficult to file a complaint without a lawyer, because if we do it ourselves, it seems like the complaint disappears,” he says. Paulo had a public defender and regrets not having had the opportunity to receive satisfactory assistance. “During my entire sentence I only saw him twice: at the trial and at the sentencing,” he reveals.
The president of the SNCGP denies the existence of excessive use of force by the CGP. “I do not believe that the CGP uses excessive means beyond what is recommended by law”, argues Carlos Sousa. The Prison Guard mentions that the lack of professionals that this class of workers suffers from can lead to “uncontrolled situations”. However, he guarantees that “the CGP has managed to maintain order and discipline in the EPs within strict compliance with the Regulation on the Use of Coercive Means, despite the extreme lack of guards.”
Carlos Sousa reinforces that prison guards, in the performance of their duties, also run the risk of physical aggression. According to the latest Annual Internal Security Report, in 2020, there were 22 attacks on CGP members, three more than the previous year.
Em prisons, essay published in 2020 by Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, anthropologist Catarina Frois wrote that, during conversations she had, over three years, with professionals who work in the prison system, she found “unanimity in the diagnosis of the failure of the rehabilitative function through the deprivation of liberty in a prison environment”.
For Paulo, the recommended resocialization often occurs in the opposite direction. For him, more than a “school of crime”, as various authors argue, prison is a university. “You learn to do everything: to rob a bank, to drug traffic, you learn to make bad contacts to buy weapons”, he says, “you are facing the wrong side, a person who has been drug trafficking and stealing, gets there and gets worse, they will learn to do things differently and with more help”.
In the essay, Frois writes that, in cases where there is prison overcrowding, “it is no longer feasible, in many prisons, to separate pre-trial detainees from convicted detainees, or even between detainees in particularly vulnerable situations (drug addicts, the elderly, sexual offenders) and the so-called general population”. The author also mentions cases in which the same situation occurs in relation to violent crimes or detainees with violent behavior.
According to Marco Ribeiro Henriques, the socialization that occurs within a prison without any separation based on the type of crime committed can lead to the naturalization of certain types of behavior. Carlos Nolasco also believes that “it makes no sense for there not to be a greater distinction between the crimes committed” due to these resocialization processes.
The report Prison conditions in Portugal (2020) from the European Prison Observatory, confirms that, in practice, there is often no separation between preventive and convicted prisoners.
The CEPMPL stipulates, in its Article 3, that one of the guiding principles for the execution of sentences and measures involving deprivation of liberty is respect for the “principles of specialisation and individualisation of the prison treatment of the inmate”. Article 5 also establishes that the execution process is guided by the “principle of individualisation of prison treatment and is based on the assessment of the needs and risks specific to each inmate”.
The problems already mentioned, particularly overcrowding, make it difficult to comply with these principles. Added to these obstacles is the lack of human resources, which affects both Prison Guards and Social Reintegration Technicians, who are primarily responsible for the work of promoting social reintegration among inmates.
Both professional groups identify multiple problems that affect the development of their daily tasks. Work overload, poor conditions, lack of professionals and difficulties in career progression are some of the adversities indicated that make it difficult to comply with the principles linked to the CEPMPL.
The workers who make up the CGP are grouped, in descending order of hierarchy, into the special careers of head of prison guard (with the categories of prison commissioner, main chief and chief) and prison guard (with the categories of main guard and guard).
Regarding the functions performed by these professionals, Carlos Sousa, president of the SNCGP, argues that “they are not limited, as our guides and books say, to the surveillance and security of the homes where the inmates are and the security of the EP itself”.
According to Statute of the Prison Guard Corps Personnel, given the priority given to the social reintegration of inmates, “the CGP is increasingly required to have special skills and specialized knowledge in this area, which is essential for the pursuit of the duties of the prison system, in addition to skills in the security area”.
The Union President states that the CGP and the inmates establish a “dichotomous relationship” between themselves, given the “tense role between having to take care and having to impose rules”. Sousa stresses that the CGP must maintain “close surveillance of all aspects of the safety of inmates, civilians and guards”, as well as supervise “their [inmates’] well-being”.
The performance of these tasks is hampered by the lack of human resources. According to the latest DGRSP Activity and Self-Assessment Report, the CGP was the professional group that registered the greatest deviation between the planned score and the actual score. Prison guards registered 826 fewer professionals than expected.
Carlos Sousa argues that the lack of professionals is a problem that will worsen in the coming years. “There are around a thousand guards who are ready to retire and if nothing is done, there will be a shortage of them in the system,” he says. “We are working at the limit, and in terms of security, it means that if there are six or seven guards in the same wing, there are now two or three,” he adds.
In addition to the lack of human resources, the union leader argues that there is not enough motivation to pursue a career as a Prison Guard. “Asking someone to apply for a GP position, be away from home, deal with people society wants to keep away from them, deal with the complexity of the role and earn little more than the minimum wage is completely unrealistic,” he argues. He adds that “at the moment, there are guards who are 22 years old waiting for a promotion, this is unacceptable.”
These figures often translate into the CGP’s inability to perform all its functions satisfactorily. “At the moment, we are able to keep the prison system afloat,” says Sousa. The prison guard reiterates that the CGP is sensitive to issues of social reintegration, but admits that “we are not always able to meet all requests in time.”
For the new General Directorate, led by Rui Abrunhosa, the president of the SNCGP hopes that “justice will be done to the CGP”, because he believes that the working class has been “stagnant for too many years” and “waiting for investment from our supervisory authorities”. If the demands are not met, the leader states that the SNCGP will have to go on strike “like the prison system has probably never seen before”.
Social Reintegration Technicians are subdivided into three main groups. Professional Social Reintegration Technicians (TPRS) are those who monitor those under surveillance in electronic surveillance teams, as well as monitor minors in educational centers.
In turn, the Senior Social Reintegration Technicians (TSRS) prepare reports, provide support to the courts and work on community reintegration when citizens serve or have just served their sentences. Finally, the Senior Reeducation Technicians (TSR) work on social reintegration with inmates in the EPs.
The president of the DGRSP Technicians Union (SinDGRSP), Miguel Gonçalves, reports that the TPRS initially only worked in Educational Centers, but their functions were later expanded without the respective legislative changes being made. “Functional content and careers have stagnated, people do not have the functional content to do what they are doing”, he explains.
Despite its specificities, the career of Social Reintegration Technician has not, to date, been reviewed or regulated as a special career within the Public Administration. “These careers had their own technical knowledge and did not fit into general careers, so they have remained stagnant until today, they are no longer attractive”, explains the union leader.
In May of this year, Gonçalves signed a petition addressed to the then President of the Assembly of the Republic, Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, in which he called for the creation of a single career as a reintegration technician at the DGRSP. The document states that “there is a clear need to create a body of employees who have the technical knowledge, experience and training necessary to achieve the goals assigned to them, within the framework of the staff performing their duties” at the DGRSP.
According to SinDGRSP, due to this lack of recognition, there are individuals performing TSR and TSRS functions without having the specific knowledge or the necessary technical guidance. Gonçalves explains that DGRSP is subverting the law by allowing multiple workers to use mobility in the Civil Service to perform functions as reintegration technicians, even without the appropriate training.
In August, Jornal de Notícias reported on a case in which a Human Resources employee from a local authority was hired by the DGRSP in July of this year and, on August 1, began working in a social reintegration team. Workers from councils, the Institute of Employment and Vocational Training and Social Security also use this type of mobility.
The union president explains that, due to these situations, it is often not the TSR and TSRS who prepare the reports that can decisively influence the courts' decisions, particularly in relation to the detention of minors in educational centres, the sentencing of citizens and the release of prisoners. “Both the inmate population, society and the justice system itself are let down”, points out Gonçalves, “we have to have some dignity in what we are doing, we are talking about lives, crimes, victims, a set of things that must be treated in a more professional and respectful manner”.
In addition to this problem, reintegration technicians also face an overload of work due to the lack of existing human resources. According to the DGRSP Activity and Self-Assessment Report 2020, the TPRS registered 57 fewer employees than planned. The TSR and TSRS registered 64 fewer professionals.
The president of SinDGRSP is a TSR at the EP in Paços de Ferreira and confesses that he has to monitor more than a hundred inmates. “The work ratios we have are completely inadequate, it is unacceptable”, he declares. Taking into account the implementation of training, the preparation of reports, both on parole and releases, among many other functions, the technician confesses that, to attend to a hundred inmates, it would take months, which compromises individualized treatment.
The TSR who accompanied Paulo also worked with around a hundred inmates. “Mine [TSR] had 100 to 200,” he says, “we would make a request and then call you, we normally didn’t [meet] more than once a week.” Paulo explains that he was able to meet with the technician in a timely manner, but other male inmates had difficulties. “I saw desperate people who had a lot of court fees and the technician wouldn’t see them,” he says.
Miguel Gonçalves believes that attempts are being made to fulfil the purposes of executing sentences and measures involving deprivation of liberty, but these shortcomings prevent this from happening. “If I cannot monitor the prisoner, I am already distorting what the prisoner is doing and the role of prison and confinement,” he states.
The computer system used by technicians is also the target of criticism. Miguel Gonçalves reports that, for a colleague on a surveillance team to have access to certain information and reports, he needs to ask other colleagues.
“We work with the same population, under the same General Directorate, but we cannot access each other’s information”, he explains, “we have to call or send Email as if it were other organizations from other countries.”
For the new management, the president of SinDGRSP hopes that the new Director will be more communicative and respond to requests from prison system employees in a timely manner. “We hope that things will change, we know that it is the General Management and everything is very difficult, it is a world that is closed in on itself and has practices that we are very unhappy with”, he says.
The TSR who accompanied Paulo also worked with around a hundred inmates. “Mine [TSR] had 100 to 200,” he says, “we would make a request and then call you, we normally didn’t [meet] more than once a week.” Paulo explains that he was able to meet with the technician in a timely manner, but other male inmates had difficulties. “I saw desperate people who had a lot of court fees and the technician wouldn’t see them,” he says.
Miguel Gonçalves believes that attempts are being made to fulfil the purposes of executing sentences and measures involving deprivation of liberty, but these shortcomings prevent this from happening. “If I cannot monitor the prisoner, I am already distorting what the prisoner is doing and the role of prison and confinement,” he states.
The computer system used by technicians is also the target of criticism. Miguel Gonçalves reports that, for a colleague on a surveillance team to have access to certain information and reports, he needs to ask other colleagues.
“We work with the same population, under the same Directorate-General, but we cannot access each other’s information”, he explains, “we have to call or send emails as if we were dealing with other organizations in other countries”.
For the new management, the president of SinDGRSP hopes that the new Director will be more communicative and respond to requests from prison system employees in a timely manner. “We hope that things will change, we know that it is the General Management and everything is very difficult, it is a world that is closed in on itself and has practices that we are very unhappy with”, he says.
The prison system and prisons are often described as institutions and spaces that are closed in on themselves, without many channels of communication or contact with the outside world. Sociologist Carlos Nolasco agrees with this view. “Prisons are still closed in on themselves, with walls that are almost like an abyssal line that separates our everyday society and daily experiences from an exceptional space, which is the prison,” he argues.
Carlos Sousa, president of the SNCGP, also acknowledges that the CGP and the other prison system employees work “in a very closed system, not very open to the outside world” which can be “a bit 'mysterious' to people” who do not have any direct contact with it.
However, Article 5 of the CEPMPL establishes that “implementation, as far as possible, (…) approximates the beneficial conditions of community life”. Article 7 also stipulates that “implementation shall be carried out, as far as possible, in cooperation with the community”. Thus, as can be read in the latter DGRSP Activity and Self-Assessment Report, prison treatment “must be programmed and phased in order to favor the progressive approach to life in a free environment”.
In order to promote these principles, inmates can try to obtain the Open to the Outside Regime (RAE), which allows the development of teaching activities, professional training, work or programs in a free environment, without direct supervision.
To this end, inmates must have already served a quarter of their sentence, have successfully obtained a judicial release permit and have no pending proceedings that would imply pre-trial detention. In addition, prison behaviour is also taken into account. It must be considered that the inmate will not threaten order and discipline in the prisons, the safety of victims or social order and peace.
In the case of the Torres Novas EP, the application of this regime has shown significant success. In December 2021, all inmates had the RAE and, at Public, EP Director Paula Quadros stated that the success rate of the plan they had been implementing since September 2020 was around 84 percent. With the exception of six men, all completed the program and left with a promise of employment abroad.
Marco Ribeiro Henriques highlights the importance of building bridges between the prison environment and civil society. “The encounter with society must be practically immediate from the moment the sentence begins to be served”, he stresses, “the individual will not socialize outside of society, the micro-bubble that is the prison does not reflect social organization”.
Duarte Fonseca also believes that this type of contact could contribute to reducing the stigma often faced by the incarcerated population. “This interaction is what deconstructs myths about these people, it is essential”, he explains.
In 2020, inmates with the RAE dedicated themselves mainly to Maintenance/Works (38), Cleaning of Green Spaces (28), Urban/General Cleaning (20) and Agricultural Tasks (12).
The recidivism rate is the number of people who have been in prison and who commit a crime again. In Portugal, this statistic is not published in official documents. However, this data would allow us to verify whether the prison system is fulfilling its assigned role: the social reintegration of the offender into society, without committing crimes.
The last known official value was published by the Ombudsman's Office in 2003. According to the document Our Prisons – III Report, taking into account the entire prison population, around 49% were repeat offenders. According to an estimate made by Reshape, through a comparison of available data on European prison systems similar to the Portuguese one, the recidivism rate could currently be close to 60%.
For Carlos Sousa, president of the SNCGP, the importance of publishing these figures lies in the possibility of understanding whether the work carried out in the prison system is being successful. The prison guard believes that comparisons with other prison systems should not be made to obtain these types of figures, but states that, according to the CGP, “reintegration will be somewhat above that [60%]”. Sousa concludes that “the prison system as it is, is not fulfilling its function”.
According to researcher Marco Ribeiro Henriques, there is a “general awareness that something different needs to be done, that prisons are obsolete”. However, he acknowledges that “a lot of courage and political space” are needed to defend investment in the prison system. Even so, Henriques believes that the current situation will eventually become “intolerable” and that “we are in a state of flux that will lead to change” because there is “concern at an international level”.
Duarte Fonseca agrees with the prediction and also points out that lower recidivism rates would benefit society as a whole. “A reintegrated person will not commit crimes, will not create victims or incur all the costs that crime brings”, he states, “will probably be working” and “paying taxes”. In this way, the Executive Director of Reshape points out that “reintegration is not only cheaper” for taxpayers, but “the country also makes money from it”.
Fonseca stresses everyone's interest in the success of reintegration by reiterating that “a reintegrated person makes money for the country” while “a person who is not reintegrated only costs us money”.
Since July, the Gerador sent several interview requests and requests for information to the DGRSP. However, it was not possible to obtain a timely response by the date of publication of this report. When it is possible to obtain answers from DGRSP, you can consult them on the Gerador website.
Not everyone is a fan of comparisons between prison systems. Abolitionist sociologist António Dores believes that comparisons can be misleading and create a false idea that certain systems are successful. “If we want to understand what a prison is, the last thing we should do is compare countries, because that is an illusion,” he explains. “It seems that the best of these countries has the best solution for prisons, and that is not true.”
Despite the limitations of comparisons, the Nordic countries are often seen as the most successful and progressive. Dores explains that there were strong abolitionist and democratic movements in these countries that led to differences at the political, institutional and cultural levels. “Nobody in Finland or Norway dares to say that prisons are something worth keeping,” he argues.
Regarding recidivism, these countries have lower rates than those estimated for Portugal. According to data provided by University College of Norwegian Correctional Service, in Norway, the reoffending rate during the first two years after prisoners were released was around 18 percent in 2018. In Sweden and Denmark it was 32 percent, and in Finland it was around 33 percent.
The same document confirms that Turkey and the Russian Federation were, in January 2021, among the countries that sentenced their citizens to the highest prison terms. Out of a total of 230 convicts, Turkey sentenced around 492 people to between ten and 20 years, around 71 people to between five and ten years, and around 56 people to more than 20 years.
The data from the Russian Federation do not distinguish between pre-trial detainees and convicted prisoners, but out of a total population of 478 prisoners, around 714 were sentenced to between five and ten years. In Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark, the most common sentence was one to three years. In Portugal, the most common sentence was between five and ten years, with around 137 convictions.
Azerbaijan is the European country where, on average, prisoners spend the longest time in prison, at around 34,6 months. It is followed by Portugal, with an average of 31,4 months, Moldova, with 30,5 months and Ukraine, with 28,9 months. Below the European average, at 12,4 months of imprisonment, and in the lowest positions, are Cyprus, with 3,8 months, Liechtenstein, with around 2,5 months, and Switzerland, with an average of 1,8 months.
In terms of the number of inmates per available place in penal institutions, in January 2021, Romania had the highest level of overcrowding, with around 119 inmates per 112,5 places. It is followed by San Marino (111,4), Greece (110,5) and Cyprus (88). Portugal had around 82,5 inmates per 13,4 places, which places the country above the European average of around 36,8 inmates per XNUMX places. Monaco (XNUMX) and Armenia (XNUMX) recorded the lowest values.
For the same period, the European average for the number of inmates per prison staff member was around 1,5. Monaco, Sweden, Norway and Denmark were the only countries to record figures below one. Turkey recorded the worst figure for this indicator, with around four inmates per prison staff member, followed by Moldova and the Republic of Serbia, both with 2,5. Portugal had around 1,7 inmates per prison staff member.
The Republic of Serbia also recorded the worst result in the indicator of prisoner mortality per 10 people, with around 124 deaths in 2020, followed by Latvia, with 115, and Moldova, with 87. Portugal recorded twice the European average, at 33 deaths, with around 66 deaths per 10 prisoners. In the same year, Iceland, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco and San Marino recorded zero deaths.
For Duarte Fonseca, no country has yet managed to completely overcome “version 1.0” of its prison systems. “I don’t think there is any system that says ‘this is it’”, he argues, “there is no country that is 2.0% at version 1, all of them, even the most advanced, still have remnants of this XNUMXst version”.
Article 70 of the Portuguese Penal Code makes clear the legislator’s preference for the use of non-custodial sentences, provided that they “adequately and sufficiently achieve the purposes of punishment”. In this way, the document establishes several alternatives to prison sentences that can be used if certain conditions are met.
Suspension of the execution of a prison sentence is one of the alternatives to deprivation of liberty and may be ordered for crimes for which the prison sentence does not exceed five years. There are different types of suspension: simple; subject to compliance with duties; with compliance with rules of conduct of a positive nature; and with a probationary regime.
The application of the suspension depends on certain circumstances, such as the court's belief that the threat of a prison sentence and the censure of the crime are sufficient to fulfil the purposes of executing sentences and measures involving deprivation of liberty stipulated in the CEPMPL. This sentence is set at a period of between one and five years.
A fine is another alternative and is applied in place of prison sentences of no more than one year. This sanction is implemented by paying the State an amount set by the court, taking into account the defendant's financial situation. As a rule, payment is made within a minimum period of ten days and a maximum period of one year.
In cases where the crime was committed in the exercise of a public or private profession, function or activity, and the prison sentence does not exceed three years, the offender may be banned from that activity for a period of two to five years. The ban on the respective profession or function also determines the loss of the rights and privileges granted to the offender during the time of execution of the sentence.
In turn, community service may be applied instead of prison sentences not exceeding two years. Each day of the prison sentence established in the sentence corresponds to one hour of work, up to a maximum limit of 480 hours. Fulfillment of this service results in the performance of work, free of charge, for the State or for legal entities under public or private law that the court considers to be of interest to the community.
The penalty of remaining in the home is a substitute penalty in the sense of detention, since it is implemented by the obligation of the convicted person to remain at his/her home, with supervision by technical means of remote control, for the duration of the prison sentence. This sanction is applied, as a rule, in substitution for the effective prison sentence of no more than two years and only after the consent of the convicted person.
This penalty may also be supplemented by compliance with rules of conduct and observance of certain duties, such as attending programmes or undergoing medical treatment. These duties are subject to monitoring by social reintegration services.
For Paulo, the answer seems clear: no. Paulo does not believe that a world without prisons would be conceivable. “Prison isolates something that is not right for society,” he begins by explaining, “it is the corrective for the person to internalize the crime and know that it is hard to be without freedom for acts that we should not commit.”
Despite the difficulties he faced during his time in prison, Paulo believes that prison can help make society safer. “It prevents many people who should not be free from walking free, together with society,” he argues. For António Dores, an abolitionist sociologist, the answer is the opposite. “I can easily imagine [a world without prisons], in fact, if I don’t want to imagine the future, I can imagine the past,” he says.
The sociologist believes in a society that, “instead of hiding crimes by condemning those who are considered guilty”, holds agents accountable through their collaboration to identify the causes of crimes. The ISCTE professor argues that, through convictions, the courts do not resolve or identify the causes that lead people to resort to crime. Dores believes that this type of mechanism is “one of the causes of the failure of prisons and the lack of reintegration” and that to solve these problems “a different democracy” would be necessary.
Congresswoman Cláudia Santos also believes that, by attacking the structural, social and interpersonal problems that are often behind crimes, perhaps prison could be dispensed with as a form of punishment.
In this sense, historian Maria João Vaz recalls that “societies implement new solutions according to the new values and ideas that are being implemented”. In this way, the ISCTE professor states that the prison that exists today will eventually end up being replaced by another system or method of punishment.
Although he is not an abolitionist, Reshape’s CEO, Duarte Fonseca, believes in what he calls “version 2.0” of the prison system. “Prisons have not evolved in the last 250 years,” he asserts, “today we are talking about the 5G Internet, industry 4.0, tourism 5.0, algorithms, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and prisons are still in their version 1.0.”
Fonseca believes in a more streamlined prison system, in which “communities also take responsibility for people who have committed crimes” by working with them to reintegrate them into society. The Executive Director favors a small scale in order to implement individualized prison treatment and ensure access to work and education.
Restorative justice views crime not just as a violation of the law, but as causing harm to victims, the community, and even the offenders. According to the Portuguese Association for Victim Support (APAV), this type of justice understands crime as “a disturbance in the relationships between people who live together in a community, in a society or in the relationships between the offender and the community in which he is inserted”.
Restorative practices thus focus on the active participation of victims, offenders and communities, often through meetings between them, in an effort to identify the injustice committed. These types of practices aim to take the necessary steps to repair harm to victims and communities, as well as identify measures that can reduce the occurrence of new crimes.
The CEPMPL mentions, in paragraph four of its Article 47, that “the inmate may participate, with his/her consent, in restorative justice programmes, namely through mediation sessions with the offended party”. Cláudia Santos clarifies that this is the first time that Portuguese legislation mentions and allows the participation of inmates in these practices, in a prison context. “Although there are some pilot experiences in some EPs, we do not yet have restorative programmes in operation on a more or less general basis”, states, however, the deputy.
Cláudia Santos believes, however, that sometimes it takes a period of time for those applying these types of possibilities to get used to them, and she hopes that restorative practices will become a path to follow. Paulo believes that these types of practices would be productive and would be a way of repairing the damage done to victims and “giving back to society”.
Em statements à BBC, Professor of Criminology at The Open University in England, David Scott, explained that most victims do not cite punishment or revenge as their priorities when it comes to justice. Instead, victims show a greater concern for their safety and preventing other people from suffering in the same way as they did. In this sense, the professor highlights the importance and potential of restorative practices.
Scott recalls that most people imagine violent crimes when talking about prisons, but in fact, these do not constitute the majority of crimes committed. In Portugal, crimes against people account for 31 percent of all convictions. Homicides are the most common (10%), followed by domestic violence (9,5%) and offenses against physical integrity (3,6%). For violent cases, the Criminology professor recognizes the possibility of a system of removing agents from society.
Through the use of restorative practices, Scott imagines the possibility of a world without prisons. The professor argues that through them, victims would be more likely to discuss their feelings, accept what happened to them and try to rebuild their lives. In this way, the impact of the crime would be recognised by those who committed it, but also by society, which would be encouraged to support victims and participate in the rehabilitation of offenders.
Scott argues that, by not being able to simply lock someone up, society at large would have an interest in finding ways to live more peacefully with officers. “A world without prisons is not about punitive justice, it’s not about repeating cycles of violence, it’s a world where justice is about solving systemic problems and supporting people through employment, education and health, [a world] focused on social justice and not revenge,” he says.
It was a Tuesday and it was already past 16pm when Paulo, after four years of imprisonment, was waiting with his belongings at the Caxias prison for a family member to come and pick him up. The director of the prison surprised him that day with the news that he was going to be released. “While I was waiting, a thousand things went through my head: what I was going to do, what was going to become of my life, why I was imprisoned there,” Paulo confesses, his gaze fixed on the table in front of him.
Looking back, Paulo reflects on the prison as a punishment, but at the same time it was an opportunity to realize that, through “good willpower and humility”, reintegration was possible. “I reevaluated everything that happened to me and it made me improve a little, in terms of humanity”, he confesses.
The ride arrived and by 18pm he was already home, but that first night he couldn't sleep. Along with the noise of the cars and the people passing by on the street, Paulo was no longer used to having so many television channels and the entertainment kept him awake. The next day he went to for shopping time shopping, but being confronted with the large number of people was a shock. “I was used to being very confined, so I got confused, I looked everywhere, people were all different from each other,” he admits.
On his third day out, he had to go to Reshape’s headquarters, at Casa do Impacto, and the path from Chiado to Bairro Alto brought back the same feelings. “I saw loads of tourists, I hadn’t seen them for years, a lot of people,” he says. When he walked down the streets, he felt like he was “out of tune” and couldn’t concentrate. “The hardest part was being around so many people, it really confused me,” he confesses. “There are a lot of us in prison too, but we’re all there and we know each other very well, and here, people are all strangers.”
Even after about three months of his release, the noise of cars and the large flow of people continue to bother him, but he now admits to always wearing headphones. He is currently at the Employment Centre and hopes to get an internship with Reshape. “Everything is in order, I went to get my education certificate, CV, certificate of how long I was imprisoned and a statement from the Employment Centre stating that I am registered,” he reiterates.
If he gets the internship, the trips from Chiado to Bairro Alto will become more frequent. It is possible that with the force of habit and the help of his headphones, the trips will become less confusing and Paulo will get used to the freedom.
Here you will find in audio format some of the interviews conducted for this report. Each of the three episodes deals with a topic considered fundamental to better understanding what prisons are for, after all.
Director of the History Department at ISCTE
Professor of Sociology at ISCTE
RESHAPE Executive Director
Man who was imprisoned in the Caxias Prison Establishment, between 2018 and 2022
Shopping bag Gerador Ciência Viva for young journalists
