Communitas Debate: Crime and Punishment

Portugal is one of the countries with the longest prison sentences, surpassed only by Azerbaijan, according to the most recent Criminal Statistics of the Council of Europe. Other singularities of the national context: it is one of the countries in which children can stay longer in prison with their imprisoned mothers (three years, exceptionally up to five years old), it has one of the highest suicide rates in prisons, and it has a percentage of prisoners aged 65 or over that is well above the average.

Such specificities, added to prison reconfigurations enhanced and accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic (such as the possibility of longer telephone contacts and the increased use of electronic surveillance measures), create the context for the debate on Crime and Punishment, which will take place on March 31, at 2 p.m., at the Engineering Auditorium II (Building 16), in the University of Minho.

To foster an interdisciplinary discussion that intersects institutional, media and academic aspects, Paula Leão, Director of the Santa Cruz do Bispo Female Prison, Ana Cristina Pereira, journalist from the newspaper Público, and Miriam Pina, researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Porto, will be present at this debate.

[Posted: 22-03-2023]