MULHERES ENCARCERADAS EM TEMPOS DE PANDEMIA DE COVID-19: uma análise da ala feminina da cadeia pública Hildebrando de Souza, na cidade de Ponta Grossa, Paraná

Abstract

Combining the themes of gender inequity and the prison system, we investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic has imprinted a new dynamic on prisons and how this has impacted the lives of women incarcerated at Cadeia Pública Hildebrando de Souza (CPHSPG), in the city of Ponta Grossa, State of Paraná, under the bias of the realization of Human Rights and through an intersectional gender perspective. For that, we used the mixed method (quantitative-qualitative), interdisciplinary approach and semi-structured interviews for data collection, with field research being carried out at CPHSPG. The subjects selected for the interviews were the Director of the CPHSPG, a servant of the CPHSPG, five women incarcerated there and the Judge of the Criminal Execution Court and Internal Affairs of the Prisons of the Comarca of Ponta Grossa. The concern with the subject stems from the fact that mass incarceration has affected women in the last two decades, with a significant increase in women deprived of liberty in Brazil and in the world. However, the theme is still invisible, with a lack of data and a lack of attention to the specific needs of incarcerated women. In this already fragile scenario of disrespect for Human Rights, COVID-19 emerged with its consequences for the prison environment. Thus, we divided the work into four chapters, the first three having a more theoretical contribution and dealing, respectively, with (a): 1) Feminism

and its importance for us to rethink Human Rights in the light of a plural and counter- hegemonic conception , especially from the teachings brought by black and decolonial

feminism, as well as the category of intersectionality; 2) Mass incarceration phenomenon and its effects on the Brazilian reality, especially in the imprisonment of women; 3) COVID-19 and its impacts on the Brazilian prison system, based on the regulations that disciplined the imprisonment of people during the pandemic and the quantitative data available. In turn, in the fourth chapter, we work with the data collected in the field research and analyze the interviews using the content analysis method, based on the following thematic axes: a) cases of COVID-19, illness and health care at CPHSPG; b) spatiality and prison infrastructure; c) legal assistance and the right to defense; d) family life; e) educational and religious assistance; f) material assistance and the suspension of “bags”. We concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic

impacted the lives of those in custody, in several aspects, such as the absence of face- to-face visits and the accentuated fear that something would happen to them or their

family members; the suspension of “bags” and the lack of hygiene items such as deodorants, shampoos and hair creams; the absence of face-to-face inspections by the Judiciary, the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Public Defender's Office at the CPHSPG; holding hearings via videoconference, including custody hearings, intensifying a process of disembodiment of procedural acts and distance between judges and defendants. These facts, combined with the CPHSPG's small health team, the lack of allocation of specific funds to combat COVID-19, the absence of structural changes in the accommodation that houses all the inmates (with poor ventilation), increased the inmates' vulnerability and made the more painful the prison experience. We hope, therefore, that the research will help in understanding the social realities experienced by incarcerated women, in pandemic times.