Psychosocial Support in Prison Rows: University Extension Experience Report

Abstract

The aim of this experience report is, in dialogue with Psychology productions, to present the dynamics of psychosocial care in an extension program in the context of prison rows on visiting days in prison units in the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte, in Minas Gerais, in the post-Covid-19 pandemic period. From the brief exposition about the extension program, some elements that guide psychosocial care in these spaces are reported by analyzing field diaries, such as involvement in the project and engaged listening. Finally, based on these experiences, we raise some questions that interrogate the performance of Psychology, its academic production and the intervention devices it uses in its relationship with prison, proposing as an ethical horizon the affiliation of the psy field to penal abolitionist and anti-capitalist ideals, that, more broadly, aim for human emancipation in the face of oppression and exploitation.