Distance Learning Higher Education at the Pelotas Regional Prison

Despite the prison, less prison?

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the use of the EaD (Distance Education) modality in prison contexts, for the purpose of offering higher education. The object and the empirical field are constituted by the actions of offering undergraduate courses, distance learning modality, for people deprived of their liberty in the Regional Prison of Pelotas (Brazil) and in a situation of electronic monitoring, which are the result of a Cooperation Agreement between state bodies managing the prison system of the state of Rio Grande do Sul and the Catholic University of Pelotas (UCPel). The methodology adopted is the case study, using documentary data, interviews, questionnaires and direct observations. This text prioritizes the first year of studies of scholarship holders in prison. Aspects related to becoming a university student in prison and remaining a university student in prison are highlighted, including their trajectories, motivations and experiences. The theoretical framework for this approach prioritizes the Italian criminologist Alessandro Baratta, who proposes parameters and possibilities for addressing the penitentiary issue despite prison, seeking to make it less of a prison. The results of the research stage record the potential of the offer studied, which, however, depend on special effort and commitment to pedagogical and critical-reflective monitoring of the process, since it occurs in contrast with the traditional demands of the segregation-custody-discipline triad.