Abstract
This paper aims to analyze aspects of the crisis in the national penitentiary system, highlighting the extreme conditions in which inmates live, providing elements for reflection with the aim of transforming the prison environment into a place that has a real capacity for the rehabilitation of inmates. There must be more efficient action on the part of the State and greater participation by society and supervisory bodies, with the aim of solving the problem. The methodology for approaching the subject includes bibliographical research on the subject and official documents, such as the Penal Execution Law, No. 7,210, of July 11, 1984, as well as other laws and codes and official reports such as the Penal Information Report of the National Secretariat for Penal Policies. To begin, this study discusses, in an objective manner, how sentences and prisons emerged in Brazil and in the world. The different types of existing sentences, the crisis in Brazilian prisons, the profile of inmates, the issue of overcrowding and how to ensure that these inmates return to society, also show the recidivism rates, the rights of inmates to maintain their physical and psychological integrity within prisons and possible alternatives to solve the problem. In this way, it is proposed that public policies aimed at the sector be more efficient, so that there is a real recovery of inmates.
