A Defensoria Pública como custos vulnerabilis: fundamentos e desafios na defesa de adolescentes em conflito com a lei no Estado de Sergipe

Abstract

This research focuses on the role of the Public Defender's Office as custos vulnerabilis in defending adolescents in conflict with the law, highlighting its interfaces with the constitutional mandate that ensures the Public Defender's Office's role in defending individuals or groups in vulnerable situations. Thus, it honors the principle of the integral protection of adolescents, established by the 1988 Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil (CRFB/88) and regulated by the Statute of the Child and Adolescent (ECA), and the procedural guarantees of adolescents in criminal proceedings according to the parameters and measures established in the judgment of Collective Habeas Corpus 143.988/ES. This judgment, historic for Juvenile Criminal Law, established measures to overcome the overcrowding of juvenile detention centers and the consequent violation of the fundamental rights of the detained adolescents. In this context, the research problem seeks to discuss the effects and impacts of Collective Habeas Corpus (HC) 143.988/ES on the socio-educational system of Sergipe, focusing on the role of the state Public Defender's Office as custos vulnerabilis. The general objective of the research is to analyze how the judgment of Habeas Corpus (HC) 143.988/ES impacted the overcrowding of socio-educational units in the State of Sergipe and the role of the state Public Defender's Office as custos vulnerabilis. To this end, an exploratory bibliographic research methodology was adopted, with a qualitative approach based on documentary data, legislation, publications in periodicals and doctrine, and a deductive analysis method based on the critical study of the legal aspects and foundations contained in the so-called leading case, Habeas Corpus (HC) 143.988/ES. The results indicate that the judgment of Habeas Corpus 143.988/ES had a positive impact on addressing overcrowding, since the analyzed data from the Brazilian Forum of Public Security and the National Survey of SINASE indicate that there is no overcrowding in the State of Sergipe. Furthermore, the data shows that the State of Sergipe was the fifth state in the federation with the greatest reduction in the number of adolescents deprived of liberty.