Incarceration and disincarceration in Brazil: the detention hearing as a space for dispute

Abstract

The Brazilian prison population have been growing continuously uninterruptedly in the post-Constitution period of 1988. The percentage of pre-trial prisoners is high. Considering that in this period the possibilities of alternatives to imprisonment were expanded, the coexistence between incarceration and its alternatives is assumed. The article analyzes data collected in a national research on Detention Hearings, which allow to discuss tensions and the reciprocal progress of disincarceration policy and punitive mentality. Through direct observation of the hearings and interviews with law enforcement actors analysis, patterns of choice and selectivity mechanisms had been identified, which, hypothetically, are related to the concepts of legal operators about crime, the offender and punishment. Institutional mentalities in the legal field related to criminal policy options and their impact on judicial decision-making were analyzed, deepening theoretical possibilities for interpreting these data.

Keywords
incarceration; detention hearing; pretrial detention; criminal policy; alternative sentencing