Production of delinquency and rebellion: The prisoners escape from the Anchieta's Island in 1952

Abstract

In this article, we will present some results achieved in a recent research on the rebellion and mass flight of inmates of the Anchieta Island Correctional Institute in June 1952. At first, we intend to demonstrate how the study of the prisoners' profile of the island contributed to understand the process that led to the first great rebellion and mass escape of a Brazilian prison. In this regard, the process that led to the rebellion in 1952 consisted of a certain practice of incarceration and delinquency management and, in a complementary way, the nature of the relations established among the agents linked to social control. Therefore, in a second moment of the exposition, we will show how the conflicts between officials and the military played a decisive role in the outbreak of that insurgency, a fact that had a decisive impact on the expansion of the incarceration in São Paulo.