The Meanings of Re-Socialization to Correctional Offi cers in a Women’s Prison: Between Care and Control

The present study aimed at investigating a correctional offi cer’s perception of her duties, specially with regard to her role as co-participant in the processes of re-socialisation of women inmates. Through the Critical Discourse Analysis of a semi-structured interview, one identifi ed contradictory meanings attributed to this offi cer, regarding the process of re-socialisation. By clarifying the details of her daily routine, the meanings of re-socialisation and the responsibility towards the re-socialising process were being built by the interviewee during her discourse. Such responsibility was at times understood as inherent to the job of an offi cer, at other was identifi ed as being exclusively the prisoners. Despite being made with a simplistic remark, a third aspect was considered by the offi cer as determinant of the possibilities of the female’ re-socialisation: the social issue and the economic context from where 1 Endereço para correspondência: Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Ipiranga, 6681, Partenon, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil 90.619-900. E-mail: mariana.barcinski@pucrs.br Barcinski, M., Cúnico, S. D., Brasil, M. V. 1258 these women come. Although this criticism had not been fully developed, one understands that the failure or the diffi culties inherent to the re-socialising process should also be credited to a social structure which hinders the real possibilities of social re-integration. Therefore, re-socialising would be simultaneously the result of personal effort (both the inmates’ and the offi cers’) and of a fairer and more equal social arrangement.