Gender-Sensitive practices in the Portuguese Prison System: A critical analysis based on the perspectives of prison staff and inmates

• In Event: Critical Approaches to Gender-Sensitive Policies in Prison Systems (II)

Abstract

In this paper, we draw on the perspectives of prison staff and men and women prisoners to critically examine the so-called gender-sensitive practices implemented in the Portuguese prisons. Since the 1990s, several academic works have applied a gender lens to analyse the Portuguese prison system. The pioneer works of Teresa Beleza and Manuela Ivone Cunha, and those that followed, focused mainly on the context of women’s imprisonment, evidencing gender-based obstacles in the trajectories of women serving sentences. They also evidenced practices of the prison system that could be harmful for women for not considering constraints linked to gender expectations, roles, and relations. However, few studies have critically analysed the implementation of practices supposed to respond to gender equality recommendations. That is the aim of this paper. Drawing from interviews with men and women inmates and with prison staff, we conclude that despite the advances of gender laws and recommendations in the country, some prison practices remain gender-blind and reinforce gender stereotypes. For instance, the Portuguese prisons still emphasize caregiving roles for women, providing exclusively for them services like parental education and childcare, despite the non-discriminatory language in the documents that regulate prisons.

Authors

• Raquel Matos, Universidade Católica Portuguesa

• Mariana Castro, Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Portugal)

• Catarina Ribeiro, Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Portugal)

• Mónica Soares, Universidade de Coimbra