Os sentidos do trabalho para os recuperandos e egressos da APAC de Campo Belo/MG

Abstract

This study was proposed to understand the meaning of work for individuals who have been sentenced in prison as a restriction of freedom. Currently, the crisis in the Brazilian prison system is considered one of the most urgent issues that need solution and intervention from public agencies as if the failure of the system was a characteristic of the current times and the time of a current reform, which is contested by Foucault. The work performed by the imprisoned is subject of discussion regarding its purpose, after all, to whom to the imprisoned work for? Therefore, the need to understand the meaning attributed by the prisoners themselves to work and the relationship they establish with this category considered central in their lives, since it facilitates the transformation of oneself and the world, inserts social praxis as a human skill, binding and creating the feeling of belonging to a group, allowing the individual to be recognized at it, and therefore to change through work experience. The site chosen for the implementation of this project was the APAC (Association of Protection and Assistance to the Convicted) of Campo Belo / MG due to the author’s facility of access. Interviews were conducted in-depth with 10 individuals, 5 of whom were recovering from the closed imprisonment regime and 5 who had finished their sentence in the institution. The interviews were conducted through a script, being recorded and transcribed. It can be observed that, in general, the individual cannot identify the potential of work, restricting the category to aspects of survival, use of time, obligation and the possibility of obtaining financial resources that allows consumption. In the analysis of the data of the former inmates it was possible to investigate elaborate meanings that identify the work to its transforming characteristic, essential to the human identity, responsible for human interactions and sociability and able to offer the working individual a recognition. These former inmates established a deeper conection with the APAC and its volunteers, who contributed directly to changes in their relantionship with work during and after jail time. Regarding the work within APAC Campo Belo, which according to the APAC method is one of the most important elements in the recovery and change of the inmate’s life, it is clear the difference between the the public system, which does not offer options, attributing to work the sense of obligation alone, an oppressive work like the system itself. Although the APAC manages to rescue the humanity of work, the proposal regarding the semi-open imprisonment regime is criticized, by decreasing the institution’s needs and potential as well as the potential of the recoverees who are serving their sentence at such place.