This document is the thesis of Sam Geijer submitted to Utrecht University on December 15, 2014. The thesis examines the identities and coping mechanisms of Dutch prisoners incarcerated in a Brazilian prison. It includes an abstract, acknowledgements, table of contents, and 6 chapters that analyze the causes of Dutch nationals committing crimes in Brazil, daily life at the Penitenciária da Cidade prison, and how the prisoners cope with their foreign imprisonment individually and collectively. The thesis finds connections between the coping mechanisms used in prison and the criminal identities of the Dutch inmates, who are better prepared to handle the harsh prison surroundings due to prior incarceration experiences. It concludes the Dutch cope well due to support from the Dutch government and their
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Mechanical Behavior of the Human Lumbar Intervertebral Disc with Polymeric Hy...
Locked up abroad - S. Geijer
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“Locked up abroad”
A study on identity and coping mechanisms of
Dutch prisoners in a Brazilian prison.
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Thesis - MA Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Utrecht University
Written by: Sam Geijer
Studentnumber: 3919765
Supervisor: Prof. dr. Kees Koonings
Date of submission: 15-12-2014
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Abstract&&
This thesis analyses how Dutch prisoners cope with incarceration in a special penitentiary for
foreigners in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. It examines how their coping strategies relate to
the identities of the Dutch men. The thesis is a result of a qualitative field study among Dutch
nationals incarcerated in Penitenciária da Cidade and among several specialists, which were
interviewed both in Brazil as well as in the Netherlands. One of the major findings of this
research is the connection of coping mechanisms used while imprisoned and the criminal
identity of the Dutch inmates. Since the Dutch men have been involved in crime before their
current incarcerations, they are more prepared and resistant to the harsh surroundings of
Penitenciária da Cidade than people with no experience with imprisonment. Where some
show imported problem-focused coping methods others show derived emotion-focused
behaviours. The former methods are more effective than the latter, because it generally leads
to more human agency. The overall conclusion is that the Dutch cope well with their foreign
imprisonment due to their criminal backgrounds and due to the institutional support they
receive. The Dutch men receive financial support of the Dutch government that some use as a
problem-focused coping tool. Nevertheless they still experience difficulties with barriers that
influence outside contact and with the other inmates as these contacts can lead to friction and
aggression.
Acknowledgements&
While I constructed the theoretical framework I had serious doubts about the challenging
fieldwork I faced. I thought that this challenge maybe would be too difficult or too extreme
for me. I had never been in a prison before and the first time would directly be a Brazilian
one. Despite the doubts I had, the thesis in front of you is the result of the academic success I
eventually had in the field. A success, for which I want to thank my father as he gave me
guidance and support in the preparation process as well as in the field. I want to praise my
mother for the power of perseverance that she has passed on to me. I furthermore want to
thank my supervisor Kees Koonings for his constructive criticism, while I was designing this
research, during my fieldwork and while I was writing this master thesis. Special thanks go
out to Cristiane Toledo Brandão as she guided me patiently trough the application process of
the Custodial Institutions Agency of the state of São Paulo. Without her help it would have
been impossible to open the doors of Penitenciária da Cidade. I want to thank all the
specialists that have participated in this research and the Dutch men for their cooperation and
their sad but impressive stories. I would furthermore like to show my gratitude to my uncle
and aunt who have revised my thesis and at last I want to thank the K.F. Hein Fonds for their
financial support.
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1.& Introduction&
Disadvantaged groups intrigue me, as I have worked with residents of a large slum and with
visually disabled, both in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This time I decided to focus myself on
fellow Dutch nationals incarcerated in this tropical land. Although they have committed a
crime, I imagined that the situation in which they were and still are is difficult. As an
anthropologist, my interests go out to how they are able to survive in a seemingly dangerous
and lethal environment. I honestly started this research under the pretence that every foreigner
got murdered upon arrival in a Brazilian prison. Some people said to me before I left Holland:
“Brazilian prison’s? Those are really bad he?!” They seemed to be right as gathered
information for the theoretical framework was pointing that direction. However it still was
necessary to visit a Brazilian prison and talk with the people actually incarcerated there.
To my question about the initial idea of this research, that other inmates directly kill
newcomers when they enter a Brazilian prison, Dutch inmate Otto answers:
“Not even a dog gets killed for nothing. These things happen with people because they have
done something wrong somewhere. Not much will happen to you when you stay away from
this. However years ago it was different, when it was a survival of the fittest.”
So while my initial mind-set changed drastically, my fieldwork proved to be successful and
essential in order to answer the central research problem.
Research&problem&
The central research problem of this study is: What is the role of identity in the coping
strategies of Dutch prisoners in Penitenciária da Cidade (São Paulo, Brazil)? I have
formulated four subquestions that each have an own chapter in this thesis and will provide an
integral answer to the central research problem. The first subquestion is: What causes Dutch
nationals to commit a crime in Brazil? It focuses on the lives of the Dutch inmates previous to
their incarceration in Penitenciária da Cidade. The second one is: How are prison
circumstances in Penitenciária da Cidade and how do they affect the Dutch inmates? A
question that provides a complete image of the situation in which the men live. The third
subquestion is: To what extend are Dutch inmates able to cope individually in Penitenciária
da Cidade and how do they use their criminal and sexual identity? It combines the concepts of
identity and coping and will demonstrate how the former influences the latter on an individual
level. The final subquestion is: How do the Dutch cope collectively and institutionally in
Penitenciária da Cidade and what is the influence of the Dutch, religious and political
5. ! 5!
identities in this process? This final answer completes the array of coping categories, as
coping occurs on three different levels. It furthermore zooms in on several identities that can
be salient within Penitenciária da Cidade.
Relevance&of&the&study&
This study focuses on the concept of coping in a prison setting (Carver et al. 1989; De Beer
2010; Kerley and Copes 2009; Pearlin and Schooler 1978). It examines human agency
(Bandura 2006) and identity (Verkuyten 2004) and how identity is used as a tool in order to
cope with (foreign) incarceration (Jacobs 1975; Asencio and Burke 2011). These concepts
have been subjected to research already, however the scientifical relevance of my study lies in
the fact that there is little research done on the relation between coping and the use of identity
in foreign prisons. This study will prove that identity; the criminal identity in particular,
instigates certain coping behaviours that lead to more or less agency. Furthermore there is no
qualitative research done on Dutch inmates abroad, neither on the effects on the people
housed in Penitenciária da Cidade, a special institution for foreigners. My research has social
and policy relevance as well, since it creates a better understanding of the situation of Dutch
prisoners abroad. This thesis provides the Dutch inmates with an opportunity to tell their
stories to a broader audience. The outcomes of the study will also allow involved institutions
and people to improve their support towards the focus group.
Research&design&and&methodology&
This thesis is the result of a qualitative case study. I have chosen this design, as it was the
most suitable for my anthropological research problem. The qualitative information obtained
offers an in depth analysis of the situation of the Dutch men locked up in Penitenciária da
Cidade. My fieldwork consisted of two periods, one period in the Netherland from January to
March 2014. The second period was from July until the beginning of September 2014, the
whole month of August I present in Penitenciária da Cidade. In order to conduct my research
I went through an extensive preparation process. At first I made the choice to focus myself on
Dutch inmates, instead of Europeans or people with other nationalities. This decision assured
me a target group with similar characteristics, more than if I would have decided to
investigate Europeans in general. 55 Dutch nationals were incarcerated in various Brazilian
prisons in on the 07th
of February 2014. In order to increase the chance of success, I focussed
myself on one specific prison in the state of São Paulo: Penitenciária da Cidade. This is an
institution where all foreigners are housed who committed a crime in this particular state and
among them were 13 Dutch nationals. With my potential respondents centralized in one
prison, my only hurdle for success was the approval of the Secretaria da Administração
Penitenciária (SAP or the Custodial Institutions Agency) of the state São Paulo. After three
6. ! 6!
months of intensive communication and preparative work, I gained access to Penitenciária da
Cidade and this part of my field research could commence.1
During my field research I mainly used semi-structured interviews. I have conducted
this type of interview with all the respondents and it offered me the required depth for this
research. The interview questions were based on the following topics: the prison
circumstances, the influence of these circumstances on the Dutch inmates and the final topic
was how they were able to cope with the imprisonment using their identities. These were also
the topics for the semi-structured interviews I conducted with several Dutch and Brazilian
specialists. I have furthermore conducted two life history interviews to create more
understanding on the background of the men. This method was used especially to answer the
question why and how they come to commit this crime on Brazilian soil. To fill in the gaps in
my data I also conducted informal conversations with specialists. These conversations served
as an extra source of information and were usually based on specific topics on which I needed
more clarification. I have tried to conduct an ethnographic research, however the method of
participant observation was almost impossible with this confined target group. Unfortunately
I had no opportunity to observe the Dutch inmates in the closed section of the prison,
however I was able to do two observations in the half-open section. It was a pity that the
inmates were not out on the exercise yard and I only saw a glimpse of one Dutch inmate,
during these observations. I also was able to observe several inmates of other nationalities in
their daily routines as they were at work in and around the office building where I sat. Due to
the lack of participant observations of Dutch inmates, I was unable to confirm their
statements about their own behaviours in the prison.
My presence in the prison was special, as I was the first foreigner to conduct a
research in this penitentiary. I noticed differences in behaviours towards me, as most of the
officials were willing to help it seemed that others were trying to make my work harder. One
guard in particular, the inmates call him Hitler, always hindered my entry in the prison. He
sometimes made me wait 45 minutes in order to proceed to the closed part of the prison,
while with other guards this process only took five minutes. The institutional rules were strict
and did not offer room for change. I had described all my intentions beforehand in a
Portuguese research proposal. The approval of this document enabled me to interview all
Dutch inmates one time and some a second time in order to conduct a life history. On the
other hand new wishes during my fieldwork had to be approved by the director of the prison,
what made it practically impossible to deviate from my initial research proposal. For example
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Penitenciária da Cidade is a pseudonym for my actual research site. The Dutch inmates are also given false
names. These precautions are taken in order to keep the identities of the respondents secret.
A judge signed the official authorization for my research in Penitenciária da Cidade; this document is included on
page 9.
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it was not possible to interview men with other nationalities, in order to get a different
perspective on the Dutch nationals. In this case I was lucky that there was one man from
Tanzania who had travelled to Brazil on a fake Dutch passport. He was thus seen as a Dutch
national by prison authorities and after I had send for him he was placed in front of me.
I conducted two interviews with men from the half-open section in an interview
room, which was located in the outer wall of the prison. However most of the Dutch men
were locked up in the closed section, which had its own interview rooms. These are concrete
rooms with doors that could be close and a window that allowed the guards to keep an eye on
the inmate and me. I was able to honour the ethical principles that are important in qualitative
research. Penitenciária is a pseudonym for my research site and all my respondents as well
have pseudonyms. The authorities of the prison did not expect that I would directly share my
information with them and the prison employees who I interviewed participated voluntarily.
The Dutch inmates were brought to me on my request, however they were able to deny my
visit and stay in the cell. Once they were in front of me I explained clearly to that I was an
independent researcher and that they were not obliged to participate. I asked the men to sign
an informed consent form and gave them a copy as well. I furthermore asked them if it was
okay to record the interview, some agreed and others not what I respected. All the men I
interviewed in the closed section wore handcuffs for general safety reasons. The Dutch men
appreciated my presence and they did not pose a direct threat to me. However their stories
sometimes did, as I felt quite unease when I discussed the notorious prison gang the Primeiro
Comando da Capital (PCC) with one inmate. During another interview a guard was constantly
looking through the window to check on a Dutch respondent and me, this combined with the
stories of lethal violence also gave me a sinister feeling. It did influence my work and results
in the prison, however the tough stories remained in my head the complete period I was there.
Due to safety reasons I realized that I was unable to conduct observations of the men in the
closed section of the prison. I anyhow tried to find a way to make it happen still, but for my
own safety I decided not to use this method.
Outline&of&the&thesis&
The next chapter consists of the theoretical framework in which I will first focus on the
construction of identity and I will examine identity markers that can influence one’s time in
prison. The second section narrows in on coping behaviours and specifically in prison
settings. The last section focuses on imprisonment abroad and discusses the harsh Latin
American and Brazilian prison conditions. Chapter three will focus on the life histories of
three respondents. Since the majority of the men have been incarcerated before. This chapter
will highlight similarities in their life trajectories and it demonstrates how Dutch men came to
commit a crime in Brazil. Chapter four examines how the Dutch men perceive their current
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living conditions in Penitenciária da Cidade. It will discuss the aspect of social isolation and
the wish of several inmates to be placed in a regular Brazilian prison. Chapter five focuses on
individual coping in prison, mostly with other inmates and the threat of violence. It
demonstrates examples of in prison behaviours connected to the two general coping
typologies, which are problem- and emotion-focused. The chapter furthermore explains how
the criminal identity can be decisive in coping behaviour and how this results in human
agency. Chapter six further analyses identity and coping, however then on a collective and
institutional level. The chapter analyses the social interaction with other inmates and how the
Dutch men keep in contact with the outside world. It demonstrates one’s political identity and
the role of institutional support in the coping methods used by the men. After these four
empirical chapters, which give a reflection of the research questions, I conclude the thesis
with a summary of the main findings, an answer to the central research problem and an
explanation of the scientifical relevance of this study.
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2.& Theory&and&context&&
The theoretical framework consists of three sections, which will examine the main topics of
this thesis. The first discusses the concept of identity, as it plays a decisive factor in one’s
position in a social environment (Verkuyten 2004:11). The social environment of my Dutch
respondents is Penitenciária da Cidade, what makes it important to examine how specific
identities can influence coping within the prison system (Asencio and Burke 2011:166;
Jacobs 1975:481). The second section focuses on coping, as it refers to behaviour that
protects people from psychological harm in a problematic social experience (Pearlin and
Schooler 1978:2). Being locked up in a foreign prison seems to me as a problematic social
experience, which makes coping a key concept of this research. The section discusses coping
resources, behaviours and general coping styles that inmates can use. It furthermore examines
the relation between the criminal identity, actual coping behaviours and human agency of an
inmate. The third section analyses transnational crime and how foreigners experience
imprisonment, since this can be an extra burden to the initial sentence (Barnoux and Wood
2013:244). This section furthermore focuses on the Brazilian prison system and ends with an
illustration of Penitenciária da Cidade, my fieldwork site.
Identity&construction&
Verkuyten (2004:43) has the following notion of identity:
“Social identities involve social categories and designate the person’s position(s) in a
social structure or social space that is larger and longer-lasting than any particular
situation.”
According to Verkuyten (2004:10) identity is of major importance in conceptualizing the
relationship between an individual and the society. Identity explains how people position
themselves and others in their social environment, as well as how they perceive their position
(Verkuyten 2004:11). Identity is furthermore about categorical characteristics such as
ethnicity, gender, age, religion and culture. The diversity in these characteristics is a source
for people to struggle with differences and similarities (Verkuyten 2004:11).2
Verkuyten (2004:19) uses the following model in Figure 1 for the formation and
maintenance of identity. Verkuyten (2004:18-19) distinguishes three levels of analysis
regarding identity, which are the individual, interactive and societal level. The first one is
about personal characteristics, such as self-esteem and identification in intraindividual
relations. The second level focuses on concrete and everyday contacts, which both develop
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The relationship between an individual and the environment is called social identity (Verkuyten 2004:42).
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and maintain someone’s identity. The societal level is built up out of political, ideological,
cultural and economic features, which ties identity to transnationalism, economic changes and
ideologies.
Figure 1. The formation and maintenance of identity
Source: Verkuyten (2004:19).
Social identities are continuously under negotiation and are not given nor fixed (Verkuyten
2004:60), old identities can furthermore lose their social meaning and new identities will arise
(Cornell and Hartmann 1998). Various actors can influence identity formation, such as the
limitations and possibilities constituted by ideological frameworks, institutions and
authorities; economic circumstances; relations between groups; characteristics within groups;
and the effort and creativity of elites and other individuals (Cornell and Hartmann 1998).
Identity&markers&in&prison&&
The criminal identity is an important marker in prison and because all interactions among the
men are centered on the fact that one is in jail for having been convicted of committing a
crime, this identity becomes highly salient (Asencio and Burke 2011:166). Asencio and Burke
(2011:168) explain that people who view themselves as criminals are more likely to engage in
criminal behaviour to maintain and verify the criminal identity. I deem this explanation valid
for behaviours both in- and outside prison walls. At this point it is necessary to indicate how I
will identify a criminal identity among the Dutch men. The first indicator is the distinction in
the inmates’ self-image, of Asencio and Burke (2011:168). The second indicator I have
derived from my field research and it focuses on recidivism and the in- or decrease of an
inmates’ criminal identification because of his current incarceration. The importance of the
criminal identity will be explained in the next section where I will combine it with coping and
agency in prison settings.
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Jacobs (1975:481) distinguishes several other identities as he proves racial, religious
and political stratification among inmates in the United States. Racial identification in
American prisons has led to the formation of several different gangs, made up out of white,
black and Latino prisoners (Jacobs 1975:477). Individuals involved in these gangs act
according to accepted group norms, such as the ways of thinking, feeling and believing, in
order to achieve a positive identity (Tajfel 1978; Tajfel and Turner 1986).
Religious stratification has historically not served as a basis for identification among
prisoners (Jacobs 1975:478). But during and after the Second World War unconventional
religions, such as the Islam, have proven to be successful as ideological shield in prison
settings (Jacobs 1975:478).
The political identity is present among inmates and radical political groups see
prisoners as a revolutionary force that needs mobilization (Jacobs 1975:480). Jacobs
(1975:481) states that the implications of a radical organization in prison are profound, since
prisoners use their time in prison for the development of political consciousness and
revolutionary organization. The political radicals deem rehabilitation irrelevant and they do
not want to be adjusted to the system (Jacobs 1975:481).
The final identity I will discuss here is the sexual identity. According to Robinson
(2011:1309-1407), this marker influences one’s social position in prison, since gay, bisexual
and transgender inmates are vulnerable to sexual assaults in jail. Heterosexual inmates even
propagate the gay identity, since it distinguishes the ‘real man’ from the effeminate man
(Robinson 2011:1407). In male prisons rigid cultures tend to exist that reward extreme
masculinity and aggression and that perpetuate negative stereotypes about men who act or
appear different (National Prison Rape Elimination Commission 2009:73).3
Identity&as&a&coping&resource&
Asencio and Burke (2011:166-167) state that prisoners may be more subjected than people
outside the prison system to change the identity standard according the views of others. This
change occurs since they have limited resources or power, are away from their normal
interaction partners, are restricted in interactions and live in a controlled environment
according to institutional norms (Asencio and Burke 2011:166). The societal level, as seen in
Figure 1 (Verkuyten 2004), changes drastically upon imprisonment and the appraisals of
other incarcerated men can become highly influential for the identity of an inmate (Asencio
and Burke 2011:167).
Asencio and Burke (2011:172) state that when significant others and/ or imprisoned
peers appraise you to have a criminal identity, the greater the strength will be reported to
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Young offenders, first-timers and disabled inmates are also vulnerable to sexual assaults in jail (Robinson
2011:1309).
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identify yourself to that image. Verkuyten (2004) adds that people can construct their identity
as a way of retaining agency. The way people behave can thus control their perceptions and in
order to survive in prison individuals can take on or put an emphasis on a certain identity.
Johnson (1987) demonstrates that the criminal identity is important in the process of coping
with imprisonment, as he states that more mature, assertive and responsive prisoners thrive
better in prison since they experience less problems in adapting to the demands of their
surroundings.
A religious epiphany could also be crucial in coping with the tough living conditions
inside prisons (Maruna et al. 2006). Kerley and Copes (2009:232) state that taking on a
religious identity is seen a way of minimizing the negative emotional consequences of being
locked up and that religious others offer a ‘safe’ social environment.
As described earlier there is little space for sexual minorities to gain visibility and
respect and they are often targets of harassment, exploitation and assault (Schwaebe
2005:621). To prevent this from happening gay prisoners retain their masculine identity
(Robinson 2011:1407). Schwaebe (2005:622) states that the harshest harassers, in a treatment
group of sex offenders, themselves were sex offenders wishing to disguise this aspect of their
identity.
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Coping&with&imprisonment&
To start this section I will first explain the concept of imprisonment with Goffman’s
(1968:11) term of “total institutions”, which can be applied to prisons and the prison system.
According to Goffman (1968:11) these institutions are places of residence and work were
like-situated individuals reside, although these residents often do not want to be housed like
this (Bosworth and Carrabine 2001:502). Prisons house a group of people, who are being cut
off from society for a certain amount of time and who lead a formally administered life.
Living in a total institution has several implications for the ones subjected to it (Goffman
1968:17). Firstly all aspects of life are conducted in the same place and under the regime of
one single authority. Secondly all daily activities are carried out with the direct presence of
others who are treated the same and who are expected to do the same. Thirdly, the daily
activities are scheduled after one another without having the possibility to freely do as the
inmates wish. At last these imposed activities are serving official aims of the institution
(Goffman 1968:17). Basically once you are in prison you are restricted in your freedom and
you lose part of your privacy.
In order to understand how people respond and adapt to stressors that come with
imprisonment, it is necessary to analyse general coping mechanisms and specifically in prison
settings.4
“Coping refers to behaviour that protects people from being psychologically harmed
by problematic social experience, a behavior that importantly mediates the impact
that societies have on their members.” (Pearlin and Schooler 1978:2)
Before I provida an overview of the coping tactics, I focus on two resources available to
people in order to develop their specific coping response (Pearlin and Schooler 1978:5;
Porporino and Zamble 1984:411). Pearlin and Schooler (1978:5) state that people have social
resources such as family and friends, or interpersonal networks, that they can use to develop
coping repertoires. Humans also possess general psychological resources, for example self-
esteem, self-denigration, morale, interpersonal and problem-solving skills (Pearlin and
Schooler 1978:5; Porporino and Zamble 1984:411). Pearlin and Schooler (1978:5) state that
these individual qualities can help people to withstand threats from their environment, thus if
inmates lack these resources I expect them to be less able to cope properly with their prison
time.
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Examples of stressors are: isolation, boredom, bullying and potential victimization from physical and sexual
assault (Brown and Ireland 2006:656).
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With the available resources discussed, I will now create a broad understanding of
people’s behaviours while incarcerated. For this I use three explanatory models in which the
resources can be used; the first is the deprivation model, which states that behaviour, attitudes
and values of prisoners are derived from the prison environment and the culture that is
dominant in that prison (Clemmer 1958; McCorkle and Korn 1954; Skyes 1958). A second
view is the importation model, which states that individuals bring their own values, norms
and beliefs into a penitentiary and that these characteristics and social skills will influence
one’s adaptation and assimilation to being locked up (Irwin 1970; Irwin and Cressey 1962).
The third explanation of Johnson (1987) is already displayed in the section on identity. This
explanation states that more mature, assertive and responsive prisoners thrive better in prison
than less mature inmates. How the third explanation influences behaviour of inmates will
become clear later on in this section.
These three explanations, for all of which Morris (2008:451) found supporting data, I
will connect to two general coping typologies. The first one is problem-focused coping, a
style which entails a problem solving character or which focuses on changing the source of
stress (Carver et al. 1989:267). I will connect this style with the importation model as well as
to the explanation of Johnson (1987) that more mature inmates thrive better in prison, since
this coping style depends on one’s personal psychological resources in order to cope well.
The second typology is emotion-focused coping which aims at controlling or reducing
emotions that an event evokes (Carver et al. 1989:267). This style I will link to the
deprivation model, since the style has a reactive character and prisoners are seen as subjected
to the prison culture and to the stressors that come with imprisonment.5
Table 1 on the next page focuses on actual behaviours once somebody is locked up.
The behaviours will be divided into three categories of coping: the individual, the collective
and the institutional category (De Beer 2010:47). These categories are practically the same as
the ones portrayed in Figure 1 of Verkuyten (2004:19), he only describes the categories as
individual, interaction and societal. The first categories are exactly the same in both
explanations. The level of interaction, since it is done with other members of society, can be
seen as a collective action. The societal level is influencing identity from a broader
perspective. It can thus be connected to the institutional category, since these influences do
not depend on sudden changeable factors but on institutionalized forces.
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Later on in this section I will analyse the effect of imprisonment on recurrent inmates.
16. ! 16!
Table 1. Overview of coping behaviours
Imported behaviours and maturity
of inmates, problem-focussed
coping
Derived behaviours, emotion-focussed
coping
Individual - To think about how to deal with
stressor.
- To focus on the threat by avoiding
distractions.
- To wait for right moment to
respond to the stressor.
- To take active steps to remove or
circumvent stressor. Inmates carry
weapons and are aggressors in order
to protect themselves in these
surroundings.
- To focus on whatever distress or upset.
Could distract from active coping.
- To reduce the effort to deal with the
stressor, causing helplessness.
- To use alternative actions to take one’s
mind of a problem.6
- To aim at managing distress emotions
than at dealing with the stressor.
- To refuse the existence of a stressor or
acting as if stressor is not real.
- To accept the reality of a stressful
situation.
- To retract in a social isolation by simply
avoiding certain inmates, areas and
troubles.
Collective - To join a prison gang, in order to
face daily problems.
- To seek advice, assistance or
information.
- To start prison rebellions in order to
demand improvement in conditions.
- To associate with the ‘right people’.
- To get moral support, sympathy or
understanding. Think of relating with other
prisoners, but also with family, friends and
their lawyers.
Institutional - To participate in work, educational,
cultural, rehabilitative programs or
leisure activities.
- To receive assistance of involved
institutions.7
- Lack of institutional support, such as the
activities mentioned.
- Religion can serve as a source of
emotional support or as a tactic of active
coping with a stressor.
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Inmates use alcohol or drugs, or even fantasy, for psychological disengagement from a stressful situation
(Porporino and Zamble 1984:410).
7
Think of financial, social and/ or spiritual assistance of the prison management, Brazilian support groups, the
Consulate General or Embassy of the Netherlands in Brazil, the Dutch Probation Service and Epafras. The Dutch
Probation Service for example offers Dutch imprisoned abroad limited possibilities to do: language courses,
primary education and professional education (Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2012:31-32).
17. ! 17!
Sources: Carver et al. (1989:268-270), Chubaty (2001:14), De Beer (2010:47), Kerley and
Copes (2009:232), Pearlin and Schooler (1978:5), Porporino and Zamble (1984:411).
Coping&of&firstBtime&and&recurrent&inmates&
Souza and Dhami (2010:1337) state that first-time offenders and recurrent inmates, or men
with a more salient criminal identity, are differing in current prison experiences. They link
this divergence to differences in aspects of inmates’ lives previous to incarceration and their
differential exposure to imprisonment (Souza and Dhami 2010:1338). First-time inmates have
significantly more contact with family and friends on the outside than recidivists have (Souza
and Dhami 2010:1338). This corresponds with the finding that inmates’ external relationships
decrease over time (Hairston 1991). More importantly this finding indicates that people with a
salient criminal identity are less able to rely on social resources than first-timers do. These
men have to rely more on their imported behaviours and their general psychological
resources. Which results in the fact that they rely more on problem-focused coping than on
emotion-focused coping. A difference is stressed with the findings of Souza and Dhami
(2010:1338), as they state that a higher percentage of recurrent inmates gives up on drugs and
they more often participate in drug-related programs during incarceration (Souza and Dhami
2010:1338). Drug use is an individual emotion-focused coping behaviour which is thus less
used among recurrent inmates.
Recidivists are furthermore far less optimistic about post release success, or
reoffending, than first-timers (Souza and Dhami 2010:1339). Souza and Dhami (2010:1338)
state that recurrent inmates miss sex more often than first-time inmates. They suggest that this
may be due to the fact that first-time inmates are more preoccupied with understanding and
adapting to their new environment rather than being deprived in this specific need (Souza and
Dhami 2010:1338). First timers show more concerns over being attacked in prison in
comparison to recurrent inmates. According to Souza and Dhami (2010:1338) this can be
connected to their reliance on stereotypes of prison culture, in light of their lack of experience
with imprisonment. Souza and Dhami (2010:1338) state that these preconceived images of
violence in prison can lead these inmates to fixate on internal emotional states, for example
fear, rather than on external deprivations (Jones and Schmid 2000). However Johnson
(1991:282) states that even the ones who have experienced incarceration in their home
country still have to adapt to being imprisoned abroad.
Erosion&of&coping&capacity&
Imprisonment could lead to psychological and emotional vulnerability, reinforced criminal
and aggressive behaviour and it could negatively influence coping skills needed in the outside
world (Porporino and Zamble 1984:404). Incarceration can be highly stressful, which can
18. ! 18!
lead to sleeping disorders, nervous breakdowns and depressions. Porporino and Zamble
(1984:415) state that more depressed inmates have less coping responses at the beginning of
the sentence; they have low self-esteem and tend to have a lower intelligence. Uncertainty
about release dates can add to the fragility of the mental health of a prisoner (Barnoux and
Wood 2013:245). Emotional demoralization with imprisonment can even result in self-
inflicted injury and suicides (Porporino and Zamble 1984:404).
Coping&behaviours&and&agency&
At this point I want to show that the way people behave and cope with stressors will influence
human agency. I start with an explanation of the four properties of human agency of Bandura
(2006:164-165). The first is intentionality, which indicates that people have intentions that
include action plans and strategies for realizing them (Bandura 2006:164-165). The second
one is forethought, which includes more than future-directed plans. People set themselves
goals and anticipate likely outcomes of prospective actions to guide and motivate behaviours
(Bandura 2006:164-165). Bandura (2006:164-165) states that self-reactiveness is the third
one. It demonstrates not only the deliberative ability to make choices and action plans, but
also the ability to construct appropriate courses of action and to motivate and regulate their
execution. Self-reflectiveness is the final property, which allows agents to reflect on their
personal efficacy, the soundness of their thoughts and actions, and the meaning of their
pursuits, and they make corrective adjustments if necessary (Bandura 2006:164-165). In
Table 2, on the next page, I will demonstrate the properties of Bandura (2006:164-165) and
how they become visible in problem- and emotion-focused coping behaviour. Most of the
behaviours are copied from Table 1, some are made up.
Table 2. Human agency in imported problem- and derived emotion-focused coping
Properties Imported problem-focused
coping
Derived emotion-focused coping
Intentionality An individual thinks about how
to deal with a stressor.
To refuse the existence of a stressor
or acting as if stressor is not real.
Forethought The inmates, as a collective,
start a prison rebellion in order
to demand improvement in their
living conditions.
To retract in a social isolation by
simply avoiding certain inmates,
areas and troubles.
Self-reactiveness An inmate that carries a weapon
and/ or is the aggressor in order
to protect himself in these
surroundings.
Taking on a religion, an institutional
method, as a source of emotional
support or as a tactic of active
coping with a stressor.
19. ! 19!
Self-reflectiveness An inmate reflecting on the fact
that he has killed another
inmate, to get rid of the stressor.
An inmate who decides to start or
stop sending letters to his home
front, a collective coping method.
Sources: Bandura (2006:164-165), Carver et al. (1989:268-270).
When I take the information of Table 1 and Table 2 into consideration, I expect that inmates
who use imported behaviours and problem-focused coping are likely to have more human
agency in prison than people who derive their behaviour from their surroundings and use
emotion-focused coping. This, because of the reactive character of some of the emotion-
focused coping methods. In the phases of intentionality and forethought in Table 2 it is clear
that men who use emotion-focused coping do not seek a solution and do not contribute to
their surroundings. The opposite occurs in problem-focused coping where people think about
the right way to deal with a stressor and then act. Behaviours that coincide more with
Bandura’s (2006:164) statement that agents are contributors to their life circumstances and
not just products of them.
After the theoretical analysis of the main topics of my thesis, namely identity, coping
and agency, I want to use Figure 2 to demonstrate the relations that I have made. It focuses on
the criminal identity and it demonstrates that one’s coping resources depend on the salience of
the identity. It zooms in on how inmates’ behaviour is defined and that it depends on one’s
available resources. I subdivide in prison behaviours with general coping typologies. This
division is based on the reactive and proactive characters of the coping typologies. The final
row demonstrates that the presence of human agency eventually depends on the type of
behaviour displayed by the inmate, what eventually is defined by the salience of one’s
criminal identity.
Figure 2. How criminal identity leads to coping and human agency
Human!agency!
General!coping!typlogies!
How!is!one's!behaviour!in!prison!
de[ined?!
What!are!the!resources!an!
inmate!uses!to!develop!a!coping!
response?!
Salience!of!someone's!criminal!
identity!
Criminal!identity!
Social!resources!
General!psychological!resources!
Derived!
EmotionD
focused!
Less!agency!
Imported!
ProblemD
focused!
More!agency!
More!mature,!assertive!
and!responsive!prisoners!
ProblemD
focused!!
20. ! 20!
Sources: Asencio and Burke (2011:166), Carver et al. (1989:268-270), Chubaty (2001:14),
De Beer (2010:47), Kerley and Copes (2009:232), Pearlin and Schooler (1978:5), Porporino
and Zamble (1984:411), Souza and Dhami (2010:1338).
After this summary, I want to continue the theoretical framework with an analysis of the
involvement of Dutch nationals in transnational crime and a contextual description of the
Brazilian prison system.
! &
21. ! 21!
Transnational&crime,&foreign&imprisonment&and&the&Dutch&involved
An average of 11.84% of the prison population worldwide is locked up abroad (International
Centre for Prison Studies 2010). Together with globalization new opportunities and
imperatives arose for criminal organizations to be competitive (Williams and Godson
2002:325). Coupled with an interdependence between nations after the Second World War
and a general increase in mobility, this has resulted in major movements of people in foreign
lands (Johnson 1991:281). These developments increase the chances that people become
involved in crime outside one’s own borders and if caught making them prisoners in a society
where they are both cultural strangers as social outcasts (Johnson 1991:281).
Since the main offense the Dutch nationals commit abroad is drugs trade/ smuggling,
I will focus on the international illegal drugs trade. 83% of the Dutch are convicted for this
type of crime and 51% of them is incarcerated for cocaine, making it the most smuggled drug
according to Miedema and Stoltz (2008:30-31). Miedema and Stoltz (2008:62) state that the
amount of drug related crimes abroad probably can be linked to the fact that Holland is a drug
distribution-, transit- and production country. Large-scale import of cocaine for example
comes from South America and enters Holland through its ports, and on a smaller scale
through its airports (Miedema and Stoltz 2008:63). With the position of Holland in the
world’s drug trade in mind, it is obvious that Dutch people abroad can get caught in nations
worldwide, either importing or exporting narcotics. Brazil is one of the Latin American
transhipment points and the country is thus familiar with criminals from abroad. Of the Dutch
prison population locked up abroad, 43% is born in the Netherlands and other main native
countries are the Dutch Antilles, Surinam and the Dominican Republic (Miedema and Stoltz
2008:30-31). Miedema and Stoltz (2008:31) state that 30% of the incarcerated Dutch have a
second nationality, of which Moroccan, Turkish and Dominican are the largest groups. 70%
of the inmates abroad have had one or more previous convictions in the Netherlands.
Financial problems are, with 38%, the main reasons for committing a crime abroad. Miedema
and Stoltz (2008:54) state that reasons for a drug related crime are respectively: to pay off
debts, make quick cash, being unaware or being innocent and being forced into committing a
crime.8
Locked&up&abroad&
Besides the implications of being imprisoned, it is important to examine how foreigners
experience incarceration. Being locked up abroad is as being in ‘a prison within a prison’,
according to Barnoux and Wood (2013:244). Foreign inmates experience social, spatial and
cultural separation from their roots, resulting in an extra burden to the initial prison sentence.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
8
The circumstances in Brazilian prisons will be discussed later this chapter.
22. ! 22!
Gaillard and Navizet (2012:34) state that in France a prison sentence is used as a social and
spatial form of punishment. French authorities purposely create a social isolation from family
and friends by creating a big distance between them and the inmate. People locked up in
another country can thus experience this spatial dislocation even more.9
Kruttschnitt et al. (2013:483) state that foreign inmates experience a dislocation from
the rest of the prison population, as the foreign nationals are often not familiar with local
customs and the language. Barnoux and Wood (2013:242) state that foreign prisoners are
misunderstood by staff members, while contact between inmates and officers is very
important in every prison, according to Johnson (1991:284). Johnson (1991:284) states that
foreign prisoners in Japan were less prepared to be in effective relationships with officers,
because they were unaware of the specific norms and values. Kruttschnitt et al. (2013:479)
describe this with an outsider status and notice that a difference in racial and ethnic
background in English prisons negatively affects carceral experiences. Kruttschnitt et al.
(2013:482) prove this dislocation, in relations between inmates and staff as black and racial
minorities perceive it with more negativity than Caucasian people do. Foreign prisoners have
less belief in approaching a staff member to ask for help and they are also less likely to feel
safe (Kruttschnitt et al. 2013:482). The foreign inmates furthermore do not have enough
translation possibilities, they misunderstand basic prison information and do not have
sufficient to read in one’s own language (Barnoux and Wood 2013:242). Barnoux and Wood
(2013:242) even conclude that foreign prisoners, unless housed with other prisoners from the
same country, are likely to be completely isolated due to language barriers.
Racial and cultural differences influence the inmates’ behaviour more than the
prescriptions of prison culture, such as commitment to inmate solidarity and nonconformity
with staff expectations (Porporino and Zamble 1984:406). In a Jamaican prison for women,
foreign nationals feel disliked and unaccepted (Morris 2008:450). The foreign inmates are
unable to trust others, since it would only bring them trouble. The fact that they keep from
becoming socially involved is interesting to see, because the Jamaican women themselves
form strong friendships in order to adjust to the circumstances (Morris 2008:450).
According to Porporino and Zamble (1984:403) there is a general consensus that
imprisonment should not be damaging and should not change prisoners for the worse.
Incarceration should not exacerbate psychological vulnerabilities and emotional difficulties as
it can reinforce criminal attitudes and aggressive behaviour patterns (Porporino and Zamble
1984:403). Nevertheless these social objectives are not always met and the harsh carceral
circumstances in Latin America can negatively influence the lives and behaviours of inmates.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
9
The French authorities succeed in the creation of social isolation as big distances make it more difficult for
family and friends to visit.
23. ! 23!
The increasing prison populations coupled with insufficient growth in capacity and lack of
funds for expansion has led to overcrowded institutions, in various Latin American and
Caribbean countries (Ungar 2003:922). Inmates are furthermore not always separated into
different groups according to the type of crime committed. Yet to be sentenced are placed
with sentenced people, minors with adults and thieves with murderers (Ungar 2003:916). This
can create a dangerous mix where unskilled low-level criminals can be taught the ropes by the
most dangerous of the nation (Berkman 2005:14). Prison violence is fuelled by
institutionalized abuse on a daily basis, and during post-riot takeovers (Ungar 2003:915).
Furthermore prison gangs perpetuate the carceral system in various Latin American countries.
(Macaulay 2007:651) describes these gangs as ‘toxic forces’ and they play a substantial role
in prison violence. Because they control entire prisons, criminals on the outside already
connect to these gangs in order to be safeguarded in case of a future incarceration. I will now
focus on the Brazilian context and how gangs influence the Brazilian prison system.10
Doing&time&in&Brazil&
More than one-fifth of the inmates in Brazil are HIV-positive (Bastos and Szwarcwald 2000).
Respiratory infections, bacterial maladies and skin ailments are other common health
problems in the jails and are worsened by the unsanitary circumstances (Bastos and
Szwarcwald 2000). Few prisons have a full-time physician and the gravely ill inmates are
rarely sent towards health institutions outside prison walls. These prisoners die regularly of
their illness, since the facilities are unequipped and because of medical staff that is unwilling
to treat them (Wacquant 2008:64).
Brazilian prisons lack hygiene, space, proper plumbing, electrical wiring, air, light,
water and sometimes food (Wacquant 2008:63). The humiliation that is caused by
imprisonment in these poor conditions is the primary motive for the furious riots that
periodically rock the Brazilian carceral system (Prado 2001:56–82). The penal institutions
furthermore hold between four to six times the amount of inmates for which they are built
(Wacquant 2008:63). Wacquant (2008:63) states that in 2003 penal authorities were lacking
104.000 thousand beds. Inmates thus sleep on the ground, packed together on blankets or on
foam matrasses for which they have to pay. With insufficient space on the floors, inmates
sleep in hammocks tight to the bars of their cell (Wacquant 2008:63). People who desire the
safety of a closed cell even have to pay several hundred dollars (Wacquant 2008:64). One
reason for the huge amount of people incarcerated in Brazil is the weakness of legal defence
agencies (Ungar 2003:918). The public defenders in the region are not able to represent
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
10
The consensus that imprisonment should not change prisoners for the worse is likely to be found in more
developed countries, the exact regions are not stated by the authors.
24. ! 24!
prisoners successfully, since they are overloaded with work. In a prison in São Paulo:
Carandirú, there is only one lawyer for every 300 inmates (Ungar 2003:918). Ungar
(2003:918) furthermore states that in Rio de Janeiro, 60 to 70 percent of prisoners are small-
time drug dealers, nearly all of who would not be in prison if they had better lawyers.
According to Ungar (2003:918) it is the paucity of public defenders that is a principal reason
that conditional release is not granted to many eligible prisoners.
Wacquant (2008:64) states that violent behaviour is caused by overcrowding, lack of
segregation according the type of crime committed, enforced idle time and lack of training of
and supervision by guards. The pandemic violence among the convicts consists of
mistreatment, extortion, beatings, rapes and murders (Wacquant 2008:64). Inmates are hung,
smothered, poisoned and even injected with large amounts of drugs to make their deaths
appear suicides (Wacquant 2008:64). In a specific prison in São Paulo in 2001 there were
only a dozen guards overseeing some 1,700 inmates. Wacquant (2008:64) states that the
understaffing of facilities creates power vacuums, which are filled by prison gangs and tough
prisoners. They control access to food, work, educational programs, visiting, narcotics
etcetera. In São Paulo’s prisons this vacuum is filled by the Primeiro Comando da Capital
(PCC), a prison gang with an estimate of 12.000 members in prison and 6.000 outside (Ungar
2003:915). Besides the provision of basic goods and services to some inmates and their
families, the PCC imposes itself as a regulatory court of the social relations inside the prison
(Dias and Salla 2013:399). Dias and Salla (2013:399) state that the gang exercises the role of
arbitrator and that it makes decisions in the most diverse forms of social conflicts, as well as
participating directly or indirectly in the management of the prison units. The PCC
demonstrated its power between May and August 2006 when they organised more than 70
rebellions in the state prisons. Dias and Salla (2013:399) state that even outside the prisons,
the gang instigated hostilities and attacks against ordinary citizens, and particularly against
public agents, mainly police officers and penitentiary agents. Members of the gang targeted
bank buildings, supermarkets and police stations with shotgun fire, incendiary bombs and
home-made bombs (Dias and Salla 2013:399). They furthermore burned down several public
transport vehicles, such as buses and vans. The crisis resulted in a total of 1,325 attacks and
172 deaths (Dias and Salla 2013:399). This outburst of violence can be seen as a result of the
mobilization of prisoners as a revolutionary force, what Jacobs (1975:480) described earlier
this chapter.11
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11
Jacobs (1975:480) states that radical groups do not only see prisoners as bodies to swell their membership but
also as a revolutionary force that needs mobilization.
25. ! 25!
Foreigners&incarcerated&in&Brazil&and&Penitenciária&da&Cidade&
The amount of foreigners locked up in Brazil in 2012 was 3.284 (Ministério da Justiça
2012:3-5). The largest group of foreign prisoners was from Bolivia with 448 people followed
by Nigeria with 377 of its nationals in Brazilian prisons. In total there were 613 European
prisoners incarcerated, most of them were from Spain and Portugal. The amount of Dutch
imprisoned in Brazil at that time was 40, a remarkable number compared to the English with
14 and Germans with 27 inmates in Brazil. It demonstrates the high rate of Dutch imprisoned
abroad, as described earlier this chapter.12
Three prisons in the state of São Paulo house foreign inmates. One is for females, the
two detention centres that house male foreigners are: the Provisional Detention Centre of
Pinheiros and Penitenciária da Cidade. Normally the former only serves as a place of
transition for the foreign men before going to the latter. In 2009 there were 1.742 foreigners,
1.295 male and 447 female prisoners, in the prison system in the state of São Paulo. 1.196
men were housed in Penitenciária da Cidade. This division makes clear that Penitenciária da
Cidade is the main destination for the foreign men. This number of inmates in Penitenciária
da Cidade has risen in five years, as on the 20th of October 2014. The population was 1.365
with 1.053 men fechado (closed section), which has a capacity of 872. The semi-aberto (half-
open section) had a population of 287 and a capacity of 312.13
With these facts on the foreign prison population in Brazil and in Penitenciária da Cidade, I
have come to the end of the theoretical framework. I have introduced identity construction,
the criminal identity and how identity can be used as a tool in one’s coping in prison. After
that I focussed on resources available and ways of coping with imprisonment. I combined the
behaviours with problem- and emotion-focused coping and have demonstrated that
individual, collective and institutional actions can lead to a certain amount of human agency.
After the explanation of the main themes of my thesis I focussed on transnational crime, the
involvement of the Dutch in this phenomenon. I examined the consequences of foreign
imprisonment and eventually zoomed in on Brazil with its harsh prison circumstances. There
is a substantial amount of Latin Americans and Africans incarcerated in Brazil and the Dutch
are currently represented with 55 men. About one fifth of them is housed in Penitenciária da
Cidade, a special institution only for foreigners in the state of São Paulo. This specific prison
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
12
On the 7th
of February 2014 55 Dutch nationals were incarcerated in Brazil, this information was provided by
the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a direct email on the 7th
of February 2014.
13
The data on the foreign prison population in São Paulo is found on the website:
http://www.sap.sp.gov.br/common/noticias/0400-0499/not470.html, visited on 15-12-2013. Table 5 in Annex 6
shows the exact amount of prisoners per nationality in the state of São Paulo. The data on the prison population in
Penitenciária da Cidade is found on the website www.sap.sp.gov.br, visited on 23-10-2014.
26. ! 26!
has been my research site and the place where I met the three men who, in the next chapter,
will explain how they exactly got to commit a crime on Brazilian soil.
! &
27. ! 27!
3.&& A&life&of&crime:&What&causes&Dutch&nationals&to&commit&a&crime&
in&Brazil?&
“Because who is in here, is not just in here because he wanted to be here. It are the
opportunities which he had in life (that caused this incarceration). We have contact with them
and hear their life histories and we notice that: nobody here had a good home, father and mom
super considerate, all the rights to work, education/ school. Nobody had a flourishing life.”
Diana, coordinator at the medical department of Penitenciária da Cidade.
Alfred, a volunteer of the Dutch Probation Service, states:
“Of the 50 inmates I have seen here (in Penitenciária da Cidade) I have never once seen one
with a fulltime job. One that does not come in on Monday because he is locked up in Brazil.”
Alfred furthermore finds it remarkable that a big part of the inmates has a background in a
different country than the Netherlands. According to Alfred this demonstrates that
descendants from other countries are still not completely integrated in our Dutch society.
!
This chapter uses the life stories of three Dutch inmates up to the point of incarceration in
Penitenciária da Cidade, in order to provide an answer on the question: What causes Dutch
nationals to commit a crime in Brazil? Although this research focuses on coping of Dutch
nationals inside a Brazilian prison, it is interesting to examine how the men end up in
Penitenciária da Cidade. The examination of the personal background of the respondents also
offers an insight on coping mechanisms they used during their lives, before they got
incarcerated. Thomas (1977) states that it are these life patterns that influence coping
mechanisms used by inmates. The method life history exists as an agency through which
historically marginalised individuals may account for their own lives (Goodley 1996:334). In
this case the method provides the Dutch inmates with a voice and according to Goodley
(1996:335) it offers the reader of this thesis an invitation to re-examine his or her
preconceptions of the Dutch men. Goodley (1996:335) states that the life history invites
readers into another’s world, prompted by the personal nature and the intimacy of the story.
Gert,&the&unfortunate&migrant&worker&&
I (Sam Geijer) have entered the prison and I am being processed to go through to the closed
section. I pass various gates and metal doors; they open up as guards recognize me. The
guards have a list of inmates I will interview and I express my wish to speak to Gert, an
28. ! 28!
elderly man who because of his 72 years old impresses me before I have even met him.
Someone of this age in a Brazilian penitentiary has to have an impressive past. I am placed in
the interview room with a small table and two chairs. It is cold in between these concrete
walls and although I am wearing two sweaters I still shiver sometimes. Gert comes shuffling
in in a sweatpants and sweater in sand colour. He is humble towards the guards and towards
me. We shake hands and he sits down in front of me. He sits comfortably in a 90-degree angle
turned away from me, sometimes turning his head to look me in the eyes. Gert is a pleasant
old man. He had enough to tell and was enjoying our conversation. The only thing was that
his medication was influencing the movement of his tongue, at times he was inaudible due to
the rolling of his tongue in his mouth. Despite of the worthless situation he was in, he had a
cheerful joy over him.
Field notes made on the 11th
of August 2014.
Being born in Surinam, the 72-year-old Gert went looking for work in the Netherlands in
1961. His parents had already passed away, but he had one sister living in Rotterdam and
another sister in The Hague. He himself started in Amsterdam where he began to work at the
dry docks. One day he inhaled toxic fumes from a wreck, lost half of his stomach and became
unfit for work. Gert received a financial compensation and from that point in time he receives
monthly disability insurance. He moved to the city of Arnhem and got into a relationship with
a prostitute, however he was unaware of her career until she got pregnant of him. In 1970
Child Protective Services took their child away and after this negative life event Gert was: “A
little bit lost, I got entangled in drugs and that sort of things.” Gert eventually got addicted to
heroin and he moved to Amsterdam. Here Gert received treatment for his addiction at the
Public Health Service. Gert did not experience their help as a solution though, since he
remained addicted to morphine and methadone. “This is no help; this is the creation of
addicts.” Alongside his addiction he was having financial problems:
“The problem I always have is the Public Health Fund. I am often sick and often go
to the doctor which I have to pay.”
As a solution to his financial problems Gert started to smuggle drugs. He has done it ever
since:14
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
14
Gert is often referring to the Public Health Fund. This Fund has been shut down in 2006, from then onwards all
Dutch inhabitants are obliged to have a basic health insurance. When he talks about current debts, he is probably
referring to the fact that he is in debt to health-care insurers.
29. ! 29!
“Then I started to take pellets for people and yes I leave and enter (the country) all
the time. I leave and enter all the time, I receive money if I pass and if I don’t pass I
end up in jail. [..] I have as well been caught in the Netherlands, in Surinam I have
been caught, in Peru I have been caught, in Belgium I have been caught.”
Gert has served almost three years in the Netherlands, two and a half years in Belgium, five
years in Surinam and his final incarceration was for three and a half years in Peru. Because of
his high blood pressure and the tuberculosis he was suffering in Peru, he decided to escape
out of the half-open facility. He travelled from Peru to Ecuador, Bolivia, Curacao and back to
the Netherlands. Gert returned with nothing and on top of it all he had an outstanding debt of
3000 euro’s with the Public Health Fund.
“All these years while I was in Peru, the Public Health Fund did not stop charging,
they want their money. If I am locked up in Holland the ministry of Justice tells them
I am locked up and there is no problem at all with the Public Health Fund. If I am
imprisoned in the Netherlands there is no problem with my State Pension. If I am
incarcerated abroad I do not receive social security contribution and I will still have
to pay for the Public Health Fund. Those things are incomprehensible, if I go back
now (after this current sentence) the debt is high.”
Gert eventually found a place to stay at a house of a woman he knew through a friend. But his
debts were affecting her as well, since he had subscribed himself at her address. When a debt-
collecting agency came to collect his debts at her address, Gert once again felt the pressure to
earn money. The desperation of Gert is clear:
“I am always stuck abroad, I cannot help it. I cannot help it. At this moment I receive
720 euro’s retirement a month, I cannot pay for housing. I cannot pay for housing!
How am I supposed to pay for that? On top of it I have to pay for health insurance as
well. This all has caused me to be in this current problem.”
Gert’s current problem is his incarceration in Penitenciária da Cidade, a Brazilian prison that
only houses foreign inmates, where he is already locked up for two years an six months of his
seven year and three month sentence. We did not touch the topic of his drug run, how he was
apprehended in São Paulo and how his first experiences were in the Brazilian prison system.
Interesting is the fact that although Gert has escaped from a Peruvian prison, he still prefers
that prison over Penitenciária da Cidade.
30. ! 30!
“If I knew (how the situation in his current prison would be) I would have stayed
there. Because I had to stay in Peru till next year: 2015.”
The reason why inmates prefer other prisons over Penitenciária da Cidade will be given in the
next chapter.
Wesley,&the&60ByearBold&stage&lighting&technician&
Wesley made a sad impression. Not because he was heavily depressed, but because he was
powerless in these difficult surroundings. He was able to prepare himself for this interview,
since he had spoken with another Dutch man I already interviewed and he was thus waiting to
be called for. Our conversation was doing him well. He has been talking almost the entire
time and his whole life history was put on the table. I thought it was sad.
Field notes made on the 13th
of August 2014.
Although Wesley was born in Curacao, he grew up on the French side of Saint Martin. He
had his own business in stage lighting. Alongside his career he had three extramarital children
with a woman from the Dominican Republic. His work in the show business was taking its
toll on his personal life. The mother of his three children ran away from him and she took
their kids with her.
“When she was gone for almost a year, I arrive home where I had no life. Each night
I was drinking in bars until I got hooked on drugs through wrong female companions.
And that is how I lost everything, lost my own business.”
Eventually Wesley’s brother became worried about Wesley’s addiction and recommended
him to go to Holland for rehab. He followed the advice, but his attempt to get clean did not
succeed:
“Eventually it went wrong. I was not able to keep my mind right. I got addicted to
alcohol. I missed my kids whom I had not seen for 16 years. I got hooked on drugs
again.”
Wesley was unable to maintain a regular job in the Netherlands and saw a last resort in the
smuggling of narcotics.15
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
15
In his 17 years of marriage Wesley had no children with his wife.
31. ! 31!
“Eventually I went to smuggle drugs for others in order to build my own life and it
went wrong. After being locked up in Spain, three years in Spain, I was back in
Holland. I have always tried to work a normal 9 to 5 job, but at my age it is difficult.
So it was ok but it was not ok. It was employment agency this, employment agency
that and employment agency here. The system of the employment agencies does not
suit people of age with no real diplomas. Eventually after Spain I tried to earn an
honest buck through employment agencies, but I never managed to get entirely back
on my feet. That is why I every now and then enter the mula business and that is why
I am here. My last job in IJburg [..] at the Panama club as a technician, I was there for
almost six months voluntarily. The money of the social security was not enough to
pay off my debts. I rather have a normal job. I am not the one who bought a
Lamborghini thanks to drugs.”
While Wesley knows the risks of the game, he defies fate with a drug trip to Brazil. Customs
officers are already suspicious of Wesley at point of entry. He got questioned due to his new
passport and several previous trips to Brazil.
“He interrogated me: Is this your first time in Brazil? I said no sir. Why are you here?
I say holiday. He says are you here to get drugs? I say no sir. He says be careful man,
I will be watching you. You may go, but I will keep an eye on you. I tried not to do
what I was supposed to do. But I was working for people to whom I was accountable
and I took the risk anyhow. But I had taken a very small amount of drugs, 260 grams
in swallowed pellets.”
His return flight to the Netherlands departed from the airport of Campinas. Wesley is directly
suspected upon arrival at Campinas airport. The Federal Police did not find drugs in his
luggage, so they tried a different approach:
“Sir we need your urine. I tried to fool them. I put water out of the toilet in the cup
but it was too cold and they noticed it. I had to do a second urine test and it came out
positive.”
He did not want to make a statement about his committed crime. But as the police were
grilling Wesley more and more he got rebellious:
32. ! 32!
“I have the right to remain silent, it is my right and you keep on pressuring me
anyway. I told him go have adventures, go have a life man. You have a career, now I
will be going to jail leave me alone. (The police officer responds) Oh yeah you are
going to be cheeky with me? You will see who will go on adventure in life. You will
see what I will do with you!”
The police officer wanted to teach Wesley a lesson and transferred him to a civil police lock-
up, which is an unusual action since he committed a Federal crime. Wesley states: “They have
brought me to this particular civil lock-up so they could steal my stuff.” He was imprisoned
here for five days and was housed with 20 people in a cell. His next stop was the Provisional
Detention Centre of Hortolândia, where guards stole more of his possessions: “This is a
present for us, we will keep this and we will not give it back to you.” Before his transfer to
the Provisional Detention Centre of Pinheiros, he wanted to retrieve his personal belongings:
“When I left there I was crying like a baby, since I did not receive my belongings.
My backpack was gone. After having cried for half an hour, another functionary
showed his mercy and brought me my bag. [..] My suitcase was in a room twice the
size as this room. It was filled to the ceiling with suitcases, stuff of other prisoners in
garbage bags without a label. I had to search my own suitcase in this mess. Without a
label.”
During his time in the Provisional Detention Centre of Pinheiros Wesley experienced the
presence of prison gangs:16
“The raio (cell block) is being organized in a mafia kind of way. The direction of the
prison and the gang, the sector that is in control, have an understanding with each
other. It is a mess, drugs and cell phones included. People from the outside are
obliged to transfer money to their (the mafia) bank account, so people on the inside
can live comfortably. [..] There it is overcrowded, you are sitting like a sardine on the
ground in your cell, all squeezed together. It is incredibly unhygienic.”
After another two or three weeks in this prison, Wesley got transferred to his final destination:
Penitenciária da Cidade.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
16
Prison gangs are contemporary phenomenon in the Brazilian prison system and are examined in the theoretical
framework at page 23 and 24. The influence of these gangs will be further discussed in chapter 6.
33. ! 33!
Samuel:&homeless&father&of&a&2ByearBold&girl&
Samuel is a dark skinned guy of Surinam descent; he is not that big and seemed educated. He
was wearing glasses and had a tattoo on his right forearm. He did not seem the type that you
can expect here, but this could be said for several others prisoners as well.
Field notes made on the 12th
of August 2014.
Samuel is pretty peaceful and deliberate. It was doing him well to talk like this. [..] I do not
think Samuel is a real criminal, more an educated person with money problems. I still think it
is strange how they become that desperate and commit this crime.
Field notes made on the 28th
of August 2014.
The 33-year-old Samuel grew up in the Bijlmer, a low-income neighbourhood in Amsterdam
and for some a breeding ground of crime. His father was a drug dealer, who got kicked out of
the house by his Samuel’s mom when he was five. Samuel stayed with her and she tried to
keep him away from the negative side of the Bijlmer. She sent him to schools in ‘white’
neighbourhoods, but eventually Samuel chose to go to a close-by popular ‘black’ high school.
It was there that he got more in touch with the street life in his neighbourhood. Nevertheless
after high school he managed to finish his intermediate vocational education and got a degree
in assistant marketing and communication. He started another study, but at this point in his
life he was too distracted:
“You can say that it started at this moment, because I had a lot of influences
alongside my school life. So when I arrived home I did not do my homework, instead
I went to chill with people. Smoking joints, partying, women, all that kind of stuff.
Yeah and a lot of friends of mine were active in the drug business. That is how I
started to sell drugs as well, till the early morning, six in the morning and seven in the
morning I had to get up to go to school.”
After his failed attempt to study once more, Samuel had found a well-paid job outside the
drug business to pay his bills. However, he stopped going to work due to an emotional
depression after the break-up with his girlfriend and eventually he lost the job. He sat at home
for five months and found another position in his area of expertise.17
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
17
Samuel had to pay his bills of the Public Health Fund and his monthly repayments for his 8000-euro’s study
loan.
34. ! 34!
“And yeah then the bills were coming in again. A guy came up to me and asked if I
wanted to do something for him. Yeah he came with the suggestion of smuggling
something for him. I have considered it and eventually decided to do it. I had no more
days off from work and the pressure was high, so I practically chose the money over
my job. I went smuggling and lost my job. I went to Surinam to smuggle something.
Once back I did not work again, I was only involved in drug related affairs. And yeah
in Holland if you do not work the bills keep piling up. The Centre for Work and
Income could not help me anymore, since the debts were that high that I had to
unsubscribe myself from my mom’s address.”
Without a home address Samuel was unable to register as someone looking for work, he thus
could not apply for social security. For two years he was sleeping at various homes of family
members, until he registered himself as homeless. While being homeless he got offered 8000
euro’s for a trip to Brazil.
“A guy I knew from the past said to me: Yes, this is good (the smuggle), it is quick, it
is quick. I already was in a state of mind: what else, you know? I have to do it, what
else can is do?”
This trip became the reason for his current incarceration in Penitenciária da Cidade. Samuel
elaborates how he got arrested:
“But when I gave my passport to the counter assistant, it was clear that he took more
time and that he gave me a suspicious look. All of a sudden he called out for a
colleague, I suppose, who was sitting behind him. He was not paying attention at me
at all, was not focused on me. He walked up to me and said something in Portuguese,
I did not understand anything. And the man passed over the counter and showed his
badge, like I am a cop. Where are you travelling to? What was the reason of your
visit? They brought me to a room and they found the drugs and then I got arrested.”
Samuel experienced difficulties during his arrest since he did not speak Portuguese:
“At first it was really difficult, especially the communication with Brazilians. When I
got detained at the airport I had to sign papers, which I did not understand at all.”
35. ! 35!
How the Dutch men cope with the language barriers they face in Penitenciária da Cidade will
be further discussed in chapter 5.
This chapter shows several similarities in the life trajectories of the Dutch men. Gert is born
in Surinam, Wesley in Curacao and Samuel in the Netherlands but is from Surinam descent.
Gert and Wesley did not have a lot of relatives in Holland and Samuel grew up without a
father. As demonstrated by Pearlin and Schooler (1978:5) in the theoretical framework, social
resources such as family and friends can increase one’s coping repertoire. However these
three men had limited social resources and when they suffered negative life events, mainly
related to relationships and family matters, their ways of coping all appeared to be emotion-
focused. This contradicts what I have discussed in the previous chapter. The explanation for
this contradiction can be that the men had underdeveloped psychological resources to find the
right problem-focused coping response. However the men relied on emotion-focused coping,
a style that aims at controlling or reducing emotions evoked by an event (Carver et al.
1989:267). The reactive character of this coping style did not result in solutions to their
problems. Gert and Wesley used alternative actions to take their minds of the problem. Gert
got hooked on drugs, Wesley on alcohol and later as well on drugs. Samuel retracted himself
from society and was depressed for sometime. The men all have a history in drugs and are
thus close to the source of the drugs. When these men were in financial need they all saw the
same solution, which was the smuggling of narcotics. Two of the three have been incarcerated
before and were unable to stay away from a criminal way of life. Unknowingly life would
bring them all together to the same destination: Penitenciária da Cidade. The next chapter will
analyse how the circumstances in this particular penitentiary are and how the Dutch inmates
experience them.
36. ! 36!
4.& Penitenciária&da&Cidade&
This chapter will answer the question: How are prison circumstances in Penitenciária da
Cidade and how do they affect the Dutch inmates? This is a relevant question since Brazilian
prisons are lacking hygiene, space, proper plumbing, electrical wiring, air, light, water and
sometimes food, according to Wacquant (2008:63). This chapter thus will examine the flaws
in this specific penitentiary and it’s influence on the Dutch inmates. It starts with a vignette
about a prison riot that occurred in January of this year. Other themes that will be discussed
are the daily routine, medical care, daily activities, prison rules, cultural differences and
violence. The chapter focuses as well on the potential extra burden due to difficulties with
being locked up abroad, as foreign inmates can experience social, spatial and cultural
separation from their roots (Barnoux and Wood 2013:244). To conclude this chapter I will
compare Penitenciária da Cidade to institutions with just Brazilian inmates.
The riot of the 13th
of January 2014
It is 06.00 o’clock in the morning and prison guards pull nine inmates from raio II. They take
them away to the castigo (disciplinary cells), since these prisoners had been causing troubles
two days earlier. When the guards try the same at raio IV, they are welcomed with resistance.
A group of prisoners starts to rebel; they light their matrasses on fire and throw them out on
the exercise yard, they break windows and even their cell doors. The scared guards run off
and the prisoners achieve to get out of their pavilion in order to free their fellows in other
raio’s.18
Kelim writes:
“We were still locked up and we saw a heavy dark smoke going up which is not normal, we
were guessing there’s something happening in the other raio. They succeed to come out of the
raio. They start to break down the gaiola, they entered the whole raio’s and freed the rest of
the prisoners. Then the riot started. After 3 hours of mania, they had broke and burnt
everything, the whole corridors, the inclusão, the hospital, castigo, seguro (secure housing
unit), where we used to talk to the advocates, kitchen, the whole of the firma’s (workplaces)
were burnt down. [..] They entered in inclusão, open peoples bags and stole many things and I
don’t know for what use! The one they didn’t reach they put fire on them, opening peoples
Sedex steeling things. Actually they didn’t know what they were doing more than destroying
things. The raio II was the most destroyed, the roof of a firma fall down because of fire, the
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
18
In Annex 3 a letter written to former inmate Erik is enclosed. This letter is written by Kelim, a friend of his from
Tanzania, a man who was still incarcerated during this riot. It gives a first hand impression of the event.
37. ! 37!
back wall fell down, due to this destruction they closed down the place and the school. I don’t
know for how long, I heard only the library survived !.”
The Dutch Jasper tells that the riot was a collective effort against the authorities and the
police. He sensed a unity among the inmates. Jasper and others were throwing some sort of
party in these ‘free’ hours. People were drinking alcohol, smoking weed and snorting cocaine,
it was al for free since the inmates knew that the police would take everything away from
them. While the entire prison is under control of the inmates, men of the Grupo de
Intervenção Rápida (GIR) are preparing themselves and eventually violently enter the prison
to take back control. In their intervention they use teargas and rubber bullets to subdue the
inmates.
Kelim writes:
“We were 38 people in our cell together with mister H.B. There was no food, no water, no
light. Just imagine 38 people in one cell without light and water!!! The toilet was stinking to
hell, we passed the night sleeping 2, 2 in each bed, we put the blankets all around the floor,
till the bathroom and toilet. We squeeze our self, even the place where we used to keep
clothes, there someone slept on top. I am sorry to H.B. he slept beside the toilet.”
Elderly Gert states that for two or three consecutive days they did not receive food and it was
difficult to sleep since the cells were overcrowded. Eventually the inmates were divided over
two raio’s, to end up with 25 people in every cell. The cells then remained closed for 30
consecutive days to punish the inmates.
Although a riot of this magnitude in Penitenciária da Cidade had never happened
before, it is an example of the violent face of this Brazilian prison. It was an outburst of pent-
up emotions, the guards taking away prisoners to the castigo was the straw that broke the
camels back. The prisoners were no longer accepting the rigid and sometimes illegal regime
that they were suffering. The right to be placed in the half-open section was neglected,
inmates remained locked up while having the right to be freed conditionally and their visitors
were disrespected by prison officials. It all vented on this 13th
of January, with severe
consequences for the conditions of the prison and the people housed in it. During the time of
my fieldwork the prison was still not functioning to the fullest extent possible, since two of
the four raio’s were still in reconstruction. This resulted in overcrowded cells and the
relocation of inmates over the two other raio’s. Due to this the men lost their right to a bed,
since they entered in a new cell. Besides the situation in the cell, the regime got stricter. All of
my respondents were wearing handcuffs during the interviews, something that normally
38. ! 38!
wasn’t the case. The scars of the riot were visible, as there were burn marks on the walls in
the rooms in which I was conducting the interviews.
The&daily&routine&
The prison consists of a fechado (closed) and semi-aberto (half-open) section. The closed
section consists of four pavilions, the seguro and the castigo. The half-open section is located
outside the prison walls and consists of two rectangular shaped buildings surrounded by chain
link fences. Since the end of 2006 this prison is a special institution just for foreigners, which
results in the fact that the majority of the prison population is made up out of mulas or
laranjas (international drug smugglers).19
Due to the two pavilions that are in construction, a cell in the fechado that is built for
nine people currently holds 15 or 16. The inmates are cramped together in a tiny noisy space
with some of them sleeping on the floor.
“From 6.00 in the morning till 10 at night (the noise). [..] Sometimes you do not
understand shit of what they are saying because of the noise. You get used to it.”
That 43-year-old Giovanni is used to it, becomes clear during our interview when he keeps on
talking when the noise of a circle saw cutting through the iron hinges of a door is deafening
my ears. The inmates suffer during cold nights, when the temperature drops to less than 10
degrees Celsius and a wind blows through the cell. Their blankets are too thin and they have
insufficient clothing for this type of weather, since they have lost all their possessions in the
riot. During the day the temperatures can rise to 35 degrees Celsius, making the cell a muggy
place with insufficient ventilation.
Each day the inmates have to be ready for count at 7:00 a.m. From 7:00 a.m. to 8:00
a.m. breakfast is served, divided among the inmates and consumed in the cell. Between 08:00
a.m. and 11:00 a.m. the inmates are free to walk around their raio. At 11:00 a.m. the inmates
have to be back in their cells, to be closed in and to receive lunch while the raio is being
cleaned. At 1:00 p.m. they are freed once more just to return at 4:00 p.m., after which diner is
being served. Samuel explains:
“You can say that you are being drilled here. At 5:00 a.m. you get up, at 11 a.m. we
eat, at 4:00 a.m. we eat and around 6:00 a.m. you are already exhausted.”
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
19
At the 20th
of October 2014 the fechado had a population of 1.053 and a capacity of 872. The semi-aberto had a
population of 287 and a capacity of 312. Source: www.sap.sp.gov.br, visited on 23-10-2014. In Annex 2 a layout
of the prison is enclosed.
39. ! 39!
Prisoners are practically able to tell what day it is by the type of food they get, since some
foodstuffs are served on a specific day. Arroz com feijão (rice and brown beans) is being
served every day though, a regularity and cultural dish in Brazilian cuisine which some of the
Dutch prisoners dislike. Prison guard Jozef is aware of the problems foreign inmates have to
adapt to the nutrition:
“In the beginning they think some things are strange. Principally on the part of
alimentation. Because, this is how they (the inmates) talk: do you eat rice and beans
every day? I say rice and beans everyday. In the morning, during lunch and at
dinner.”
After 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon the cells will remain closed until 8:00 a.m. the next morning.
The semi-aberto has another time-schedule and normally the doors of the two cell
buildings are open from 6:00 a.m. till 10:00 p.m. The exercise yard offers room to inmates of
only one building at a time and the exact hours of operation can differ. The half-open section
is turning into a half-closed facility with almost less freedom than in the fechado, due to
several recent escapes.20
Daily&activities&
“Sit. Just sit and gaze in front of you, stare.” Is the answer of elderly Gert to my question
what he does daily. The devastation of the riot brought educational activities and work shops
to a standstill in the closed section of the prison. The current situation is very different than
the one the inmates were in last year, according to the security coordinator of Penitenciária da
Cidade Fulvio:
“The last year we had an average of 680 employed, almost 700 people employed and
an average of 400 enrolled in education. There was a school in the four pavilions and
the school that is still functioning today in de ala de progressão (synonym for half-
open section) was also being used. So there were three periods with classes: in the
morning, in the afternoon and in the evening. [..]There were practically factories in
each of the pavilions. There was a clothing factory, there was a jewellery box
assembly, there was jewellery assembly, there was soccer ball production, there was
the production of clothespins. There was more work offered than there were people
willing to work. [..]There were still a lot that did not want to work, since they have
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
20
On a Sunday, before my visit to the semi-aberto at the 18th
of August 2014, four inmates had escaped by
climbing over a fence. The jacket that they used to cover up the razor wire was still hanging there.
40. ! 40!
family who deposit money in their account and that is how they manage. But for a
large part, mainly South-Americans and Africans were working.”
Today inmates are offered the opportunity to work on party streamers and clothespins, but
this is badly paid work and uncomfortable as the men have to do the job inside their cells. The
last months the focus of the prison authorities has been on rebuilding the institution instead of
job creation. Nevertheless there are plans to once again create jobs in the closed section. The
situation in the half-open section is different, since it did not suffer from the devastation of
the riot. In this section half of the population is working or enrolled in educational activities.
It pays off to be involved, since with each three days an inmate works or studies he earns a
one day decrease in his prison sentence. Inmates with a job receive a monthly salary; the
amount depends of the type of work. Inmates who work as faxinas (inmates who clean and do
choirs) or in the kitchens receive around 30 Brazilian Real, but people who work in a nearby
clothing factory earn 550 Brazilian Real a month. Dutch inmate Bertus is employed and he
works in the water purification for four months already. The inmates who work have some
extra space to move around, but always remain under supervision of a prison official. During
a visit to the semi-aberto I was caught off guard a little when eight inmates were walking
towards me outside of their chain link cage. There was no need to be scared since it was just a
group of non-dangerous prisoners at work. Bertus was one of them and saluted me with: “Hey
Dutchman!”21
The prison church still offers distraction for some and is open every morning and
afternoon. However, there has been a more prosperous time regarding religious activities
according to coordinator at the medical department in Penitenciária da Cidade Celine:
“Until January we had four religious institutions, every weekend, Saturday and
Sunday. So we had a Christian congregation, Jesus is love, a prison ministry and the
testimonies of Jehovah. [..] We now have to wait for the reforms, for them to resume
their work.”
It is clear that the riot had a huge impact on the institutional activities. The next section
discusses another institutional service, as it focuses on the medical care in Penitenciária da
Cidade.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
21
Inmates work in the kitchens, in workshops, as cleaners, as logistical help, as maintenance worker and some
men are working in an outside convection factory. Each day an inmate is able to work six hours and/ or study four
hours. With every three days of study or work the inmate receives a one-day decrease of his sentence. According
to Fulvio this is the main reason for the prisoners to work or study.
