Un'altra educazione è possibile nelle prigioni? Il caso dell'Associazione di Protezione e Assistenza ai Condannati (APAC). Uma outra educação é possível nas prisões ? O caso da Associação de Proteção e Assistência aos Condenados (APAC).

This research analyses the pedagogical conception of the policy model of restriction and deprivation of liberty implemented by the Association for the Protection and Assistance of Sentenced Persons (APAC), which calls itself educational, and whose purpose is to verify if it is a new model or a sophistication of the traditional one. In order to study this model, which intends to have reduced the recidivism from more than 40 thousand people to less than 20%, a bibliographical research has been conducted to deepen the knowledge of the traditional model of prison, focusing then on the specific situation in Brazil. Subsequently, the APAC model has been studied through the inspection of the texts describing it and the review of the research literature in Brazil and Italy. Finally, a participatory observation has been carried out thanks to an ethnographic method in two of the units of the model, using the field diary and the open and semi-structured interviews, conducted to analyse the practices. We have drawn a comparison between the practices and the discourses about the model and, finally, we have compared it with the traditional prison model. The potentialities of that space, which is other than prison and which supports the educational projects of people deprived of liberty, were analysed and highlighted, as well as the weaknesses resulting from underfunding. In this way, it was observed that another education is possible for the prisons, but also that there is still the risk that it will have limited effectiveness in facilitating the return to society, given the structural limitations due to the insufficient work opportunities offered to people who return to freedom.