Abstract
This article aims to discuss the State practices produced in the field of Public Security, mainly related to criminal policies. We based our studies in Michel Foucault with the purpose of carrying out the analysis of documents related to the resources and actions directed to the prison system of the State of Rio Grande do Sul and on news published by print and digital media. The analysis starts from three vectors linked to the investment in Public Security, namely: the investment in public security through the professional training and improvement of working conditions articulated to this field; the investment related to the increase of vacancies and / or creation of new facilities in the prison system; finally, the investment through the problematization of alternative sentences that would constitute as an option to break with this prison rationality. We conclude that the investments made have not produced a reduction in the number of crimes committed or an improvement in prison conditions, but rather an increase of the forms of incarceration that affects the subjects constituted as criminals. Then, the measures that are created are based on an arbitrary arrangement of legalities, allowing a range of actions to be carried out in the name of public security that are based on a minimum calculation about the lives to be managed in a low-cost investment plan and with low effects, combined with the increase of the prison system and the execution of violent practices.
Psychology; Public Security; Incarceration; Legal Violence