DECELERATION OR PUNITIVE RECONFIGURATIONS? EVIDENCE FROM PUNISHMENT MANAGEMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

From March 2020 onwards, the Covid 19 pandemic presented challenges to global society and sociology in a unique way. In the twenty-first century, in the face of a context of acceleration of social relations and processes (Rosa, 2012), among which punishment and its greatest expression is incarceration (Garland, 2008; Wacquant, 2007; Fassin, 2022) imposed an unprecedented phenomenon. The political decisions of the countries and the pressure of organized civil society acted strongly to curb the trends experienced until then and considered hegemonic and unavoidable in recent decades. The methodology used was documentary analysis, we used data and documents published by official agencies and also available in reports from research institutes such as the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research Birkbeck of the University of London. We propose to observe evidence raised that points to a punitive reconfiguration. The findings reinforce the idea of a metamorphosis of punishment implemented in prison environments and outside it, showing how the measures adopted at the same time did not cease to be punitive and painful, but also legitimate from the perspective of the double security care.