Who are the incarcerated women in Paraná? More than statistics, subjectivities and feelings in the letters addressed to the excellent judges

Abstract

Women have always committed and continue to commit crimes, going against laws and social norms established and considered appropriate for female behavior. Some will be investigated, tried and sentenced to imprisonment. Currently, Brazil is the 3rd country with the largest prison population in the world, reaching a total of 909,000 people behind bars, second only to the United States and China. It is also the 3rd country that most incarcerates women, reaching the mark of 42,600 women incarcerated, a very expressive number, considering that they represent 7% of the prison population in the world. Most are black and poor women, a profile easily criminalized by the justice system. Despite the crimes committed, these women do not lose their humanity, in this way, some fragments of letters written by them to judges and also to family members will be exposed, aiming at their humanization beyond the crime committed. The methodology used will be Discourse Analysis, of the letters that were filed in their medical records, which demonstrate the discourse of reason, truth, operators of law and the law and also that of madness, of the criminal woman, accused and convicted. The richness of these documents comes from being material produced by them, demonstrating their feelings, fears and afflictions regarding prison.