Social and political changes and their influence in the execution penal law

Abstract

These considerations were made in order to understand determined meaningful connections existing within some social and political changes that have mainly occurred in three distinct moments as experienced by certain segments of the Brazilian society, and their influence on Law No. 7.210, July 11, 1984. The first moment refers to the country's re-democratization stage, which started more effectively after 1979 when President João Batista Figueiredo took power (1979-1984). The second moment is made up of some fragments that were extracted from reading "Exposição de Motivos nº 213", May 1983, written and signed by Ibrahim Abi-Ackel, when he presented the future LEP bill to the National Congress. The third moment starts when the Law for the Execution of Sentences took effect after July 11, 1984. When analyzing the first and second moments, we will try to bring out consonant aspects between the democratic effervescence prevailing in the civil society and in the State, when seen through the government and the legislative power to the extent of producing a LEP-level text, which is simultaneously up-to-date, advanced, and revolutionary, even for the first decades of the 21st century. By focusing on the relevant law effectiveness, attention will be drawn to some meaningful connections existing within certain facts of great social outreach and their influence in later changes made to this law. Thus, the "uncontrolled growth of the organizational, physical and material structure power of criminal groups" gave rise to the creation of a Differentiated Disciplinary Regimen whereby, under the freedom-depriving sentence, the fact that a prisoner "has, uses and supplies a telephone, radio or similar set that may allow for communication with other prisoners or the outside world" is deemed a severe fault. Changes to the LEP, thus, are unraveled to and limited by three different focuses, which are interchangeable, i.e., prior to, simultaneous with and later than the process for its creation and enactment.