by Giovanna Barbosa Bianchini
Abstract
This essay investigates the relationship between Brazilian penitentiary architecture and the lack of attention to gender specificities regarding spatial issues in prison. Therefore, it discusses women's prison spaces highlighting their neglects and violations, especially regarding degrading spatial conditions, mixed jailhouses, and the confine's maternity.
Keywords: gender, prison architecture, maternity, penitentiary
Introduction
This essay attempts to highlight the women's specificities neglect in confined spaces. For this reason, the course of the paper begins with a contextualization of women's prison spaces in Brazil and their architectural neglect towards women. Then, three main topics are introduced, which address the disregard of gender specificities in Brazilian prisons: degrading spatial conditions, mixed prisons, and neglected maternity. Finally, a case of a women's confined that establishes itself as an exception to other units in the country, the Madre Pelletier Women's Penitentiary, is reported.
LANGUAGE AS A MANIFESTO
Here, we introduce a reflection of the author: a concern with language, a result of the readings and studies that accompanied the writing of this essay.
The essay in question is a "feminist work" and allied to feminisms. A woman has written it, another woman advised it, and several other women helped it.
A majority of women have written the bibliographical references, and the population studied for this research and the project resulting from it is made up of women. Nevertheless, the exercise of maternity, a relevant field of study of this work, is a feminine theme par excellence.
The original language of this essay is Portuguese, in which there is a gender difference for adjectives, plurals, and general nouns. But despite this norm, we used the feminine gender in both forms: general and plural. This choice was aesthetic and political, coherent with the gender to which this work mainly refers. Therefore, align with the study's intention, this choice questions: the feminine as an exception, resulting from the use of the masculine as neutral and universal.
PENITENTIARY SPACE IN BRAZIL AND THE MATTERS OF GENDER
Throughout time, the male gaze has been the rule for the measures taken concerning the Brazilian prison system, in which penal policies and services directed to men prevail, relegates the diversities that comprise the female prison reality (Brazil, 2016).
Invisibility is the fundamental condition of incarcerated women in Brazil. It, at the same time, is symptomatic, "legitimizes" and intensifies the marks of gender inequality to which women, in general, are subjected in Brazilian society, especially those who, due to their socio-economic profile, are at the bottom of the social pyramid, as is the case of women in prison (Brazil, 2007, p.6).
The neglect of architectural structures and internal equipment in closed institutions for the female population makes evident that the formulation of penitentiary policies contemplates only men (Brazil, 2007). Women deprived of freedom have specific demands and needs. The international normative framework responsible for these demands is the Bangkok Rules - United Nations rules for the treatment of women prisoners and definitions of non-custodial measures for women offenders, approved in December 2010 by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UNGA) - one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN).
This standard proposes a careful look at the gender specificities of women's incarceration. Although the Brazilian government participated in the negotiations for its elaboration, the Brazilian public policies have not incorporated the Bangkok Rules adequately (Brazil, 2016). According to Braga & Angotti (2015), although Brazilian women's jailhouses have significant differences, none operate according to the current legal parameters of the international norm, nor do they operate according to Law No. 7.210/84 - Lei de Execução Penal.
The Brazilian prison system is a place of social exclusion, of selectivities in extramural practices, a space for the perpetuation of vulnerabilities where the detainees, not even, have the rights to education and work guaranteed. In female units, specifically, these oppressions are added to the violation of sexual and reproductive rights and the lack of access to specialized health care, such as gynecologists (Braga & Angotti, 2015). As Queiroz (2015) reiterates, women are forgotten by the prison system itself. They are offered the same aid given to male inmates, ignoring the differences and their specific needs.
Below, situations were highlighted that configure the main spatial and institutional violations that discard the specificities of gender in the prison environment:
A) Degrading Spatial Conditions[1]
B) Mixed prisons
C) Neglected Maternity
A) Degrading Spatial Conditions
In practice, women jailhouses built regarding women's specificities and human rights are rare. Notably, almost all the existing women's prisons are established in "refurbished" buildings [2], whether former penitentiaries for men or public buildings deactivated.
In Espírito Santo, the architectural structure of the women's prison in Tucum preserves the facilities of the psychiatric hospital adapted in 1996 to receive incarcerated women. Another similar case is a women's prison in Pará state, which still maintains the structures and facilities of the former Juvenile Reeducation Center, the original use of the building. In São Paulo, the old State Penitentiary, initially projected in 1920 for male inmates, was deactivated and "reformed" in 2005 to become the Female Penitentiary of Sant'Anna. However, the adaptation did not meet the specificities of women, nor the social function of re-education and resocialization conferred to the penalty of deprivation of liberty. Even after complaints made, at the time, by entities acting in defense of incarcerated women, nothing in the space was changed. An example of this lack of adequacy is the configuration of the bathrooms:
Between the toilet and the "shower," there is a wall that would have the function of providing some privacy when bathing or using the restroom, but it is only high enough to cover the view up to the waist. This wall is cut in the middle by a door, whose center is hollowed-out, and its front faces the toilet, making any privacy impossible when necessary. The same wall, which pretends to confer some privacy, was built, at the time, when the Penitentiary housed only men. Now, it is not high enough to hide the breasts, for example, leaving no doubt that the building renovation didn't observe any female specificity (Brazil, 2007, p. 22).
Concerning capacity, initially, this jailhouse was designed for 1,200 men. When inaugurated as a women's prison, it was "adequate" for 2,400 women. The courtyards, for example, the only places for leisure, have no attraction beyond the blazing sun and do not even have any furniture or architectural equipment such as benches or courts (Brazil, 2007).
B) Mixed prisons
In addition to the institutional violence of assaults on people deprived of their liberty, incarcerated women are also subject to offensive sexual violence perpetrated both by prison staff themselves and by male prisoners in mixed prisons. Mixed prisons are still a reality in Brazil, where men and women can share the same physical space. Most of the time, these spaces are separated by walls or allocated to different wings, but reality shows that these barriers are not always operative, which can cause several problems, including the occurrence of sexual abuse and lack of privacy (Brazil, 2007).
In mixed prisons, the lack of consistency regarding female conditions is typical, again showing that prison policy is based only on male needs.
"If there is no place for women, the prison staff allocates them to detention, which is the worst place in jail. Even the structure of the buildings is made for men. The bathrooms, called "bois", are holes in the floor. Imagine a pregnant woman squatting in such a place? "(Queiroz, 2015, p. 133)
C) Neglected maternity
Besides the already mentioned violations suffered by women in the prison system, there is also the affectless and painful reality of pregnant and lactating women. In addition to the fact that prison is, in most cases, an unhealthy place and a place of systematic violations of rights:
The maternity spaces are an exception. In most cases, they are located only in some Brazilian capitals, not reaching the prison population in general. Even so, even the establishments considered models have structural and situational flaws that allow us to state that the exercise of maternity for imprisoned women in the various Brazilian contexts is precarious (Braga & Angotti, 2015).(Braga & Angotti, 2015).
In Brazil, only about 14.2% of prison units that receive women have a space reserved for pregnant and lactating women, which again highlights the gravity of the reality of these women. The Women's Infopen (Brazil, 2017) found that only 3.20% of prison units – mixed or only women – in the country have a nursery and, or a maternal-infant center, where the confined mother remains in contact with the newborn for two years for the necessary care during the breastfeeding cycle.
Pregnant and lactating women deprived of liberty rarely were inserted in environments specifically designed to guarantee their rights and, in addition, are subject to several other degrading situations. The moment of separation takes place, usually, after six months of the child's birth, when the State defines that the mother is no longer essential to their offspring and decides to remove their babies from maternal coexistence" (Martino, 2020). Varella considered this one of the most brutal moments of the period of incarceration for women. The situation is made worse when physical torture is commonplace in prisons.
There are reports of mothers who were physically assaulted in the belly during pregnancy, or even of women who were tortured with their son or daughter in their arms. The punitive structure and failure of justice in Brazil, together with the inattention to human rights, specifically reproductive and maternal, of incarcerated women, causes very serious consequences for them, such as the loss of their daughters and sons and the impediment of maintaining family ties (Braga & Angotti, 2015).
One of the rare facilities built, in its origins, to be women's prison units is located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, called the Madre Pelletier Women's Penitentiary. Queiroz (2015) states that this unit was the first female jailhouse in Brazil, founded only in 1937 by nuns of the Catholic Church and not by the state. Before that, all convicted women served their sentences in mixed jails.
In 2011, one identified in the Rio Grande do Sul an increase of 600% in the number of women in prison considering fifteen years. Given this scenario, in Madre Pelletier, an appropriate outpatient clinic was installed, with a gynecologist, nutritionist, dentist, psychologist, nurse, and general practitioners. In 2015, 90% of the inmates were working or studying, and the internal courtyards were decorated with fun colors and toys for their sons and daughters to distract themselves on visiting days (Queiroz, 2015).
Although the penitentiary still has several problems, such as the lack of ventilation in the cells and the occurrence of vexatious searches, "one feels there an atmosphere of evolution that, unfortunately, separates the Madre Pelletier, at this moment, from the history of the rest of Brazil (Queiroz, 2015, p. 134).
Conclusão
In addressing the spatial relations in prison and the gender issue, the essay concludes that prison services and policies are addressed and formulated from a male perspective, overlooking the diversities and specificities that comprise the reality of female prisoners. The disregard for the architectural structures and equipment of prison institutions and the non-compliance with confined women's rights are both proofs of that. Women prisoners should only, according to the law, suffer limitations on their right to come and go, "but the neglect, negligence, and omission of the State in fulfilling its duties spreads violations of all other rights of prisoners that should not be affected (Brazil, 2007, p. 6).
Incarcerated women present specific and differentiated needs and demands concerning those manifested by the male gender and, because of this, the recognition of the relevance of the analysis of female imprisonment as a unique category is a fundamental step towards the understanding of the development of the prison system, while penal abolition is not a reality.
Footnotes
[1] - Section based primarily on the document "Report on incarcerated women in Brazil" (Brazil, 2007).
[2] - The renovations of male prisons into female prisons are generally unsatisfactory since they are usually just buildings reused for other purposes and not properly adapted architecturally
References
Braga, A. G. M. & Angotti, B. (2015). Dar à luz na sombra: condições atuais e possibilidades futuras para o exercício da maternidade por mulheres em situação de prisão. Brasília, DF. Série Pensando o Direito.
Brasil. (2016). Conselho Nacional de Justiça - CNJ. Regras de Bangkok: Regras das nações unidas para o tratamento de mulheres presas e medidas não privativas de liberdade para mulheres infratoras (Série Tratados Internacionais de Direitos Humanos). Brasília, DF.
Recuperado em 12 out. 2020: https://carceraria.org.br/wpcontent/uploads/2018/01/documento-regras-de-bangkok.pdf.
Brasil. (2017). Departamento Penitenciário Nacional. Levantamento Nacional de Informações Penitenciárias INFOPEN Mulheres – Junho 2017. Brasília, DF .
Recuperado em 8 jul. 2020: http://depen.gov.br/DEPEN/depen/sisdepen/infopen-mulheres/copy_of_Infopenmulheresjunho2017.pdf.
Brasil. (2007). Secretaria Especial de Políticas para as Mulheres. Relatório sobre mulheres encarceradas no Brasil. Presidência da República. Brasília, DF.
Martino, I. R. L. de. (2020). Mães livres: por uma maternidade sem grades. São Paulo, SP. Revista da Defensoria Pública do Estado de São Paulo, v. 2, n. 1.
Queiroz, N. (2015) Presos que menstruam: a brutal vida das mulheres tratadas como homens nas prisões brasileiras. São Paulo: Editora Record.
Varella, D. (2017) Prisioneiras. São Paulo: Editora Companhia das Letras.
Lista de figuras
Figure 1. Sentence displayed in the courtyard of the Reference Center for Pregnant Women Deprived of Liberty, in Vespasiano (MG, Brazil). Photo: Leo Drumond for the Mães do Cárcere project, working together with journalist Natália Martino (2017). Recovered on 25 Oct. 2020: https://revistatrip.uol.com.br/tpm/livro-maes-do-carcere-mostra-a-rotina-do-unico-presidio-exclusivo-para-gravidas-do-pais-e-reacende- the-discussion-about-maternity-behind-the-bars.
Figure 2. Original plan of the State Penitentiary project, current Sant'Anna Women's Penitentiary, dated 1911. Source: Reproduction Estadão collection (2015). Retrieved on 16 Feb. 2021: https://acervo.estadao.com.br/noticias/acervo,era-uma-vez-em-sp-penitenciaria-do-carandiru,11257.0.htm.
Figure 3. Main entrance to the Sant’Anna Women’s Penitentiary. Author photo (2020).
Figure 4. Penal establishments that have a nursery and/or maternal-infant referral center, by Federation Unit. Source: Infographic prepared by Gabriela Papi based on data from Infopen Mulheres (2017).
Figure 5. Intern and her child at the Reference Center for Pregnant Women Deprived of Liberty. Photo: Leo Drumond for the Mães do Cárcere project, working together with journalist Natália Martino (2017). Retrieved on 16 Feb. 2021: at: https://www.chegadetrabalhoinfantil.org.br/noticias/materias/maes-em-carcere-dificuldades-das-mulheres-presas-e-um-projeto-para-atende-las/.
Figure 6. Illustration made by the author (2020).
Author name: Giovanna Barbosa Bianchini
Occupation: architect and urban planner, Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie (2020)
Author's biography note: Architect and urban planner from Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie (2020). Actively participated in Coletivo Zaha (feminist collective of FAU-Mackenzie) as an organizer of events that aim to discuss the role of gender in the field of Architecture and Urbanism.
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