The coloniality of penal rehabilitation: sentence remission and epistemic violence against indigenous peoples in the brazilian prison system

Abstract

This research analyzes the coloniality present in Brazilian penal resocialization mechanisms, with a specific focus on sentence reduction applied to Indigenous people deprived of their liberty. It starts from the understanding that the Brazilian prison system has been historically structured based on Eurocentric legal and institutional paradigms, frequently disregarding the cultural, social, and epistemological specificities of Indigenous peoples. In this context, it investigates how sentence reduction, although foreseen as an instrument of social reintegration and humanization of penal execution, can reproduce practices of epistemic violence by imposing homogeneous models of work, education, and resocialization disconnected from Indigenous cultural identities. The research develops a qualitative, bibliographic, documentary, and jurisprudential approach, grounded in the 1988 Federal Constitution, the Penal Execution Law, Resolution No. 287/2019 of the National Council of Justice, and critical references related to criminology, coloniality, and human rights. The analysis demonstrates that, despite the existence of normative mechanisms aimed at protecting indigenous rights, institutional practices persist that subordinate traditional knowledge to the hegemonic punitive logics of the penal system. It is concluded that the realization of the fundamental rights of indigenous people deprived of liberty requires a critical review of penal execution policies, recognition of cultural plurality, and the construction of resocialization mechanisms compatible with the ethnic and epistemological specificities of these peoples.