Discursive exclusion and disrespect in prisons in Brazil

Abstract

In this paper, we present our ethnographic material and interpretations concerning the meanings that men and women imprisoned in the Federal District, Brazil attributed to their everyday experiences, with a special focus on the situations, statements and perceptions of these social actors related to that which we classify as structural processes of discursive exclusion. Drawing from our field data, we argue that these processes are a central dimension of pulling time, which not only configure a form of disrespect, but also the condition needed to sustain a structural scenario of violence and violation of rights in these prisons. In addition, the processes of discursive exclusion are essential to understand how the experiences of disrespect were interpreted and addressed by the interlocutors. The data presented are the result of ethnographic research carried out between 2014 and 2018 with men and women imprisoned the Federal District, Brazil.