The State and the "PCC" weaving the web of arbitrary power in prisons

The purpose of this text is to discuss the regulation of daily life in prison, where illegal punishments form a micro-level extralegal system of penalizations that founds social relations in prisons. In the last few decades, these establishments in Sao Paulo state have witnessed the expansion of an inmates' organization (the "PCC") which acts as an instance of conflict management and whose control is based on a discourse of prisoners uniting against a common enemy, the State. In response, the State uses administrative and extralegal punitive mechanisms, which contravene constitutional principles and reinforce the feeling of injustice that provides the base on which the PCC's power rests. The arbitrary practices of the State and the PCC constitute a power network that ensnares everyone sentenced to imprisonment. Adapted from the source document.