Duration:

outubro de 2019 a janeiro de 2021

Abstract:

The Portuguese prison system has in recent years been marked by tension in the labour force which has pitted prison officers against the prison management. This has had an impact on the functioning of the prisons themselves and particularly the daily life of inmates. This tension has highlighted many other structural weaknesses in the Portuguese prison system: overcrowding; one of the highest incarceration rates in the European Union, prison populations with poor social and economic resources, many of them serving short- and medium-term sentences, often with alcohol or drug dependency and poor hygiene, health and safety in their accommodation, which call into question prisoners’ fundamental rights. All of this has mobilised European courts against the Portuguese prison system. Against this background, the study focuses on three main dimensions: an analysis of 40 years of policy towards the prison and penal system, based on quantitative and qualitative data; the organisation and management of the prison system, seeking to map management dysfunction and its impact on the performance of the different stakeholders and, consequently, on prison conditions; and an analysis of the status and socio-professional conditions of Prison Officers. The study includes a comparative analysis of those dimensions with three countries: France, the Netherlands and Austria. In the light of the diagnosis and the main conclusions, the project will propose a series of recommendations which are likely to transform the prison system.

Researchers:

Carlos Nolasco

Conceição Gomes (coord.)

Fernanda Jesus

Gustavo Ferreira da Veiga

José Manuel Mendes

José Mouraz Lopes (consultor)

Marina Henriques

Paula Fernando