Judicial Institutions and Human Rights: The impact of the Reform of the Judiciary (2004) in the formation of the agenda on confronting the violation of human rights in the prison system.
The purpose of the research is to present the alterations resulting from Constitutional Amendment nº 45/2004, the so-called Judiciary Reform, in the agenda of the Judiciary about confronting the historical violations of human rights inscribed in the Brazilian prison system. The work is inserted in theories that are dedicated to understanding the relationship between judicial institutions and public policies, in this case, presenting the scenario of the functioning of the Judicial System from its institutional reform and how this impacted the prison agenda. Other parameters that guide the work are the social markers in which the logic of incarceration and penal selectivity is inserted, with institutional racism being considered here. To this end, an analysis was carried out on the legislative process that culminated in the proposed constitutional amendment nº 45/2004, which reformed the Judiciary, as well as on the changes that were implemented from this, regarding the agenda confronting the violation of rights and guarantees in the prison system. Thus, the objective is to analyze the formation of an agenda in the Judicial System concerning the policy of confronting violations within the
prison, addressing possible proposals to mitigate human rights violations. It starts with the supporting hypothesis that the incarceration policy is directly related to institutional racism, not being a tangential element, but centralizing and determining; and from this phenomenon when dealing with the violation of human rights, we have another element to be considered as fundamental for the maintenance or alteration of the scenario regarding violations of human rights and imprisonment, which is the question penal selectivity and the social abandonment of those who serve time within the prison system. The analysis will be carried out internally
by the Judiciary, considering the changes in the judicial organizational structure and in the bodies and public policies arising from this Reform, with emphasis on the National Council of Justice and its programs aimed at the prison situation that aim at the effectiveness of fundamental rights. It is important to demonstrate the role of the Judiciary in the face of the incarceration policy, considering the violation of human rights resulting from this policy and the role of caretaker of the Federal Constitution and its precepts, which is proper to the
Judiciary. Therefore, we try to answer the following questions: 1-) What interest is placed internally on the Judiciary agenda regarding the incarceration policy; 2-) How is the participation of the Judiciary on this agenda based on the declaration of the unconstitutional state of affairs (ADP 347 of 2015) of the prison system? 3-) Faced with the changes proposed by the Reform of the Judiciary, what kind of changes and programs arise to offer a response to the scenario of human rights violations that originates from the incarceration policy? To
this end, documentary and bibliographical research were carried out on the previous, contemporary, and post-reform context of the Judiciary, as well as the institutional context of the discussion about human rights violations due to incarceration. In conclusion, there is an indication that given the legal support, measures could have been taken even before the Reform, mitigating the scenario of human rights violations. However, the emergence of the National Council of Justice and mechanisms of Criminal Justice changed the institutional
dynamics of the Judicial System in the face of the issue of incarceration and violation of human rights, with the proposition of programs and the involvement of the three powers in the issue.