Health and Culture in the Walls

Governmental decree no. 1777 of September, 2003 instituted the National Health Plan in the Penitentiary System, seeking to expand universal health care by including quality health service for incarcerated people - a population that has been living in extremely unfavorable conditions. From a perspective of inclusion and dialogue, these two sectors (the health and the penitentiary system) have a direct responsibility to and come constructing public policies that contemplate the necessities of individuals who have had their freedom taken away but not their fundamental rights. Based on the current Brazilian Constitution and the Law of Criminal Sentencing, we act in order to integrally guarantee the incarcerated population’s right to make good use of and enjoy goods and cultural services and have access to health and justice. Identifying the disproportionate incarceration of black people and the need to implement actions that guarantee this population’s access to health and culture, a project was initiated in the prison system interfacing culture and health that included: meetings with groups of prisoners and their families inside and outside of the walls; diverse efforts to promote health awareness (preventing disease, promoting health, injury reduction, sexuality); entertainment activities (music, literature, cinema); educational film screenings; reinforcing groups of health monitors.   After centuries of slavery and exclusion, we have a model of justice in which we are not subjects but objects. The hope of this proposal is to: contribute to the creation of another prison model that includes guarantees to the right to health and culture recommended by the Law of Criminal Sentencing and the current Brazilian Constitution; amplify the debate around human rights for this vulnerable population in the spirit of equity; amplify the debate around the prison question, addressing race and gender as a central agenda; contributing to a vision of re-socialization that is truly inclusive.