Considering that today, in Brazil, there is no consistent information on recidivism among ex-prisoners, which, without any empirical basis, is considered high, the aims of this article are: to understand how the education and work programmes function in the Brazilian penitentiary system, how the diverse agents of penal execution perceive the re-socialization programmes and how effective is the impact of education and work on the re-socialization of prisoners. The intention was to verify if the re-socialization programmes based on work and education really interfere directly in the social reinsertion of the convict, as well as what its effective impact is on penal execution.
privation of liberty; penitentiary system; re-socialization; programmes for social reinsertion; education and work; youth and adult education