Política de drogas e narco-encarceramento no Estado de Mato Grosso

Abstract

This is a study that results from the research of criminal lawsuits, using a questionnaire, in which the sentences for the crime of drug trafficking were handed down between 01/01/2019 and 07/31/2019, aiming at the elaboration of a qualitative and quantitative analysis. A total of 264 cases were examined, distributed in 52 districts in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, with a total of 386 defendants, of which 338 were sentenced for the crime of drug trafficking within the time frame of the research. The results obtained confirm the research hypothesis that the Judiciary contributes directly to narcoimprisonment by adhering to punitivist movements to violate individual rights and guarantees, to outline the criminal policy of repressive containment of the enemy, to perpetuate stereotypes and criminal identification labels, to deepen the social exclusion caused by racism and poverty, and to confirm the total success of imprisonment, since it was created not to fulfill the functions it declares and – to the extent that it does not fulfill them – and achieves its objective. This adherence of the Judiciary to penal populism, whose principal orientation is the recrudescence of punishment of those who practice crimes foreseen in the drug law, we call narcopunitivism. Under the theoretical framework of the sociology of crime and violence, of criminological and penal criticism, as well as jurisprudential and dogmatic orientation, an analysis is made of the profile of the accused, the system of sentencing, and the mass incarceration of people convicted of drug trafficking in the state of Mato Grosso.