PRISON ECONOMY IN BRAZILIAN CRIMINAL SOCIOLOGY AND THE CIRCUITS OF COMMERCE IN PRISONS: CONTINUITIES, BREAKS, AND CONTEMPORARY MEANINGS

Abstract

This article examines the intellectual, historical, and sociological constitution of the prison economy in Brazil, focusing on the phenomenon referred to as the trade circuit that structures internal relations within Brazilian prisons. The work is organized around three axes: first, it presents the characteristics of the trade circuit identified in pioneering prison studies; next, it explores the connection between Brazilian sociological production and the consolidation of the circuit before the turn of the 21st century; and finally, it links contemporary research that systematizes the phenomenon as a central element of prison governance and the criminal economy. It is demonstrated that the trade circuit, although not named in the initial studies, was already manifesting as a structure of exchanges, coercion, hierarchy, morality, and informal regulation of behavior. It is argued that the expansion of prison factions, combined with institutional fragility, consolidated an intramural economic system that today is one of the main engines of power in prisons. It is concluded that understanding the trade circuit is essential to analyze contemporary violence, the expansion of incarceration, and the political economy of punishment in Brazil.