Reflections on the Penal Execution Law: The prison issue is not a problem "in itself"

Abstract

This article discusses Law No. 7,210 of 2024 (the Penal Execution Law), which fulfilled the stated objective in its Explanatory Memorandum of removing the execution of prison sentences from the legal loophole, a situation exposed by the Report of the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, established in 1975 to investigate the country's prison situation. Four decades after the law came into effect, this study sought to verify, through analysis of official documents, doctrine, and decisions of the of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Supreme Federal Court, whether the objective constituted an effective solution. Using an interdisciplinary approach, it was concluded that the objective was achieved only from a formal point of view. From a material point of view, on the one hand, illegality remains the rule, in constant reconfigurations of the punitive ideology. On the other hand, an efficient and permanent federative and institutional arrangement for the financing and distribution of legislative and administrative powers between the Union, states and municipalities, as well as federal and state judicial powers, has not been achieved.