What is a prison for you? The meanings of prison according to inmates and staff

Abstract

This is a case study in a penitentiary unit from Ceará, Brazil. The technique used was inspired by ethnographic research and consisted of approaches to people with a single question: “What is a prison for you?”. The data collection occurred in November 2017 and reached 16 inmates and 15 prison officers as participants. Their responses were evaluated by content analysis, identifying classes of speeches from internees, who perceive prison as punishment, learning, and response from the society; and also from the prison staff members, who perceive imprisonment as a response to society, as confinement and as a paradox. By applying the Environmental Psychology contributions, the study concluded that the environment acts over people’s minds and prison work activities allow a symbolic distancing from the imprisonment stage of mind, which helps to give a positive meaning to the convictions.

Keywords

• Psicologia Ambiental
• Entrevistas
• Percepções
• Significados
• Prisão