THE CRISIS OF (IR)RATIONALITY OF THE PENAL SYSTEM: THE DE-SUBJECTIVITY OF THE ‘OTHER’ IN THE STATE OF EXCEPTION IN POST-DISCIPLINARY SOCIETIES

Abstract

There is a constant and permanent critique to current conditions of the penal system, especially in Brazil, insisting that contemporary penalty is in crisis. One may ask: Is the penal system in crisis or is it the crisis? It may be suggested that the irrationality of the modern penal system is inherent to its functioning, a logic determined by the disposition of production modes and modern social relationships. In fact, there is no surprise in the crisis of the penal system and its selective aspects. Selectivity has always been immanent to the penal system. The difference lies in the fact that the process occurs in a subtler and ideologized manner and its effects trigger the increasing identity destruction of the Other. The modern subject is more and more de-subjectified and that which most suffers within the biopolitical mechanisms is the ‘multitude’. In fact, it is placed close to the elemental zero condition of homini sacri, human waste, inserted within a state of exception increasingly composing the standard juridical and political structure. Current paper comprises a short critical and philosophical analysis of the prison phenomenon to elaborate a new set of approaches to deal with penal selectivity, mass imprisonment and the illegitimacy of the penal juridical discourse. The main theoretical reference will be critical criminology; and dialectics will be the methodology used.