Matar o criminoso e salvar o homem: a ascensão do Método APAC como alternativa do Estado punitivo ao cenário de superlotação dos presídios brasileiros

Abstract

This monograph analyzes the rise of the Method of the Association for the Protection and Assistance of the Convicted (APAC) as a penal alternative in the context of overcrowded Brazilian prisons, problematizing its insertion within the framework of the neoliberal punitive state. The research is grounded in historical-dialectical materialism, articulating concepts such as primitive accumulation, racism, necropolitics, and the criminalization of poverty. Through critical bibliographic review and documentary analysis, the study investigates Brazil’s socio-historical formation, highlighting its continuity with slaveholding structures and its functionality to the reproduction of capital, as well as its impact on the process of mass incarceration, understood as an expression of the social question. It is argued that, although presented as a humanitarian model, the APAC Method reproduces moral, religious, and disciplinary mechanisms that individualize penal responsibility, reinforce the exploitation of prison labor, and contribute to the dismantling of public policies. The study concludes that the Method does not break with the dominant punitive logic, but rather operates as a strategy for the neoliberal management of poverty and mass incarceration, especially of the Black population.