Sovereign flock and human rights in the Brazilian prison system: from the banality of evil to the profanation of naked life

Abstract

Prison was born in modern times in order to humanize the State’s list of sanctions. In Brazil, however, custodial institutions have historically coexisted with human rights violations. Given the current relevance of this theme, this article seeks to answer the following research problem: to what extent does the Brazilian prison population configure itself as a sovereign flock in light of the biopolitical perspective unveiled by Foucauldian and Agambenian philosophies? The hypothesis, finally corroborated, identifies prison as a mechanism of deprivation of human rights by subjecting bodies and lives to the relation of the sovereign flock. The text is structured in two sections and aims, respectively, to analyze the sovereign flock in the Brazilian prison system as a portrayal of the banality of evil; and to reflect on the institutional and social affirmation and enforcement of human rights through the profanation of human nakedness resulting from sovereign abandonment. The methodology contemplates the phenomenological-hermeneutic method, the qualitative approach, the basic nature, the exploratory objective and the bibliographical and documental procedures.

Keywords: biopolitics; human rights; unconstitutional state of affairs; prison; criminal justice system.