Penas e prisões : cárcere e aplicação da justiça na província de Sergipe Del Rei (1842-1887)

Abstract

The work plan Punishments and Prisons in the Provincial Sergipe Del Rei, which is part of the project State and Society in the Brazilian Empire: Crimes and Administration of Justice in Sergipe Del Rei in the Mid-19th Century, seeks to understand the process of institutional construction of the provincial government of Sergipe. More specifically, it emphasizes the administration of justice at the local level and analyzes judicial agents, criminal proceedings, the characteristics of prisons, the implementation of legislation, and public institutions' perceptions on matters of order and crime in the Province. This study is grounded in social history methodology and involves an analysis of judicial and administrative sources, sourced respectively from the General Archive of the Judiciary of Sergipe and the State Public Archive of Sergipe. Through the analysis of these sources, it is inferred that some structural changes occurred between the prison environments of São Cristóvão and Aracaju; however, issues related to administration, hygiene, and order persisted in the new capital's prison setting. As for 3 punishments, they follow modern trends to some extent, though enslaved people continued to face flogging, and the death penalty could be applied universally. Furthermore, there was an effort to change the nature of punishments, aiming to imbue them with reformative characteristics.