Description
More than 12,000 people are currently imprisoned in Portugal. Each year, around 5,000 are released from a system designed to socially rehabilitate them — about one-third through early release, after convincing a Sentence Enforcement Court they have the conditions and mindset to not reoffend. Yet, imprisonment doesn’t necessarily improve the social context from which many incarcerated people come. So in parole decisions, are those from disadvantaged backgrounds penalized for socioeconomic factors beyond their control — issues the prison system fails to address? Does the lack of stable housing, employment or family support reduce their chances of early release? This investigation explores the social barriers that influence early release in Portugal’s prisons, to identify the most factors shaping parole eligibility. It’s led by journalists Margarida David Cardoso and Nuno Viegas, with consulting support from researcher and university professor Andreia de Castro Rodrigues.
“For years, we’ve interviewed inmates, prison workers and researchers. General consensus: the prison system disproportionately impacts the poor. Whose fault that is, and how it happens, is subject to debate. There’s plenty of academic literature about how poor people are disproportionately policed, detained, prosecuted and convicted: how they become incarcerate. But, particularly in Portugal, very little is publicly known about how we decide to let people out. As journalists, it’s been hard to scrutinize the hand full of closed-door Sentence Enforcement Courts, but we believe a systematic academic analysis of their decision-making process might help us understand — beyond the opinions of those involved — if the factors that count against you on the way in, also disadvantage you upon release.” — Nuno Viegas, journalist
Project Team
Media outlet
Research organisation
ISPA – University Institute of Psychological, Social and Life Sciences
Lisbon, Portugal
https://www.ispa.pt/
Andreia de Castro Rodrigues
Assistant professor of psychology
Portugal
