Doisélles

I. Emanation

All of us, here, in this excessively human condition, need a component to flourish our way: the dream. Dreaming is a way of believing with magic. Believing with magic is having faith. I dream, I believe and I have faith in the change. Whether total or partial, singular or plural, small or big. Better if it is from inside to outside or even from outside to inside. For thinking this way, for feeling this way, for being born under the sun of Aquarius, for watching the movements of nature, for being touched by a butterfly that once was a larva or simply for rejecting the status quo I decided to begin this project.

II. Creation

The project was idealized and justified according to the Law of Penal Execution (Law nº 7120/84; art. 28) which says: “The labor of the convict, as a social duty and condition of human dignity, will have an educational and productive end”. After all, this micro system of power and subjection, as Foucault explains, is also subjected to high constitutional dictates. And the Brazilian Republican Constitution is clear enough as it establishes Title I, which refers to the Fundamental Principles, declaring that Brazil is constituted in a Democratic State of Rights and has its foundation on the dignity of the human being, among others (art. 1st, III). Besides, this generous and huge continent named Brazil also states in its Major Law that its fundamental aim is to build a free, just and supportive society (art. 3rd, I).

On a first contact with the management members of the penitentiary we were encouraged to test some of the male work force for the task. I found it a somewhat strange proposition for never in my life had I seen a man knit or crochet, but I was there to see things I had never seen before. We had a direct contact with the detainees for the initial selection of those who would be suitable to join the proposed training. Their first contact with the needles would resemble something simply impossible. A total uneasiness between man and tool. But nothing is more impressive than WILLPOWER. Nothing is stronger than the WISH to revert a condition. Nothing is more beautiful than proving that everything is possible.

III. Formation

I brought with me every morning of the first week of training a sentence by Dostoyevsky to support all the patience and easiness I would need to have in order to plunge into a workshop with 20 detainees, 20 pairs of scissors and 20 pairs of needles: “an act of confidence brings peace and serenity”.

The revelation of what they would be able to do took no longer than a day. The speed with which they learned the movements of the basic stitches of knitting ensured that very quickly, much earlier than originally expected, they could already be calculating the production and remitting their sentence (every 3 days of work guarantees one day remit).

IV. Action

Today Doisélles has a production unit inside pavilion 1 of PROFESSOR ARIOSVALDO DE CAMPOS PIRES PENITENTIARY, where 18 detainees held in closed imprisonment system work with proficiency in the production of handmade pieces made with manual weaving techniques: knit and crochet, which go through a rigid export quality control. The happiness of this partnership is legitimated by the assurance both parts are acquiring, by growing and improving in all aspects involved in the process. We recall the lessons by Italian jurist Francesco Carnelutti in his classical As Misérias do Processo Penal (The Miseries of the Penal Process): The delinquent before he is taken to prison, is another thing, that which the author is terrified of, but when he is handcuffed, the beast becomes a man. It is not possible to make a clear division of men between good and bad. Unfortunately, our shortsightedness does not allow us to see a germ of evil in those who are called good, and a germ of goodness in those who are called bad. It would be enough to treat the delinquent, rather than as a beast, as a man, to find in him that weak tiny flame in the flickering wick, which the sentence, instead of extinguishing should rekindle. And when I am asked if all this aims at testing my level of pretense I just answer by saying I do not intend to compete with crime.

This is not my role, let alone my mission. I wish (and I am already reaching it) to change the day of the guy while he is serving his sentence, while he pays off to society the harm he has done, whatever it is. Freedom is man’s most precious value. When it is taken away from him due to demerit, time becomes his most valued possession. Idleness, on the other hand, goes the opposite direction of what everybody wishes in such situations, with all the inherent implications to the evil potential an empty, discouraged and hopeless mind may reach for. Therefore, it seems just obvious to me that keeping these hands and minds busy with a dignifying work is an unyielding way towards the aid of the major principle that inspires the jail: recovery.