ABSTRACT

This article discusses the university extension program’s role in educating students in the public field, observing the program as an opportunity to get students acquainted with the penitentiary system. The study analyzed the experience of the Motyrum Penitenciário: Educação Popular em Direitos Humanos no Sistema Prisional (Motyrum Penitentiary of Popular Education in Human Rights extension project) in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. Motyrum was created in 2005, originally called Citizenship Lessons, and works with human rights and citizenship from a Freirean perspective. Initially, Motyrum focused on law students and aimed at legal support. Currently, the project is linked to the Public Policy Management course at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte and has a multidisciplinary team. The experience occurs in the context of mass incarceration in Brazil and Rio Grande do Norte. It helps to think about the challenges of penitentiary management and the importance of extension programs for public field students. The article is structured in three parts. First, it offers a brief overview of the mass incarceration process and its impacts on society. Second, the article presents a discussion on the problems of prison management arising from the penal state. Finally, the Motyrum Penitentiary program is analyzed. We highlighted the importance of the university extension for the Public Field and student training. In conclusion, it was observed that prison management is strongly impacted by mass incarceration and criminal selectivity. The extension activity allows public field students to understand these impacts from a systematic point of view, especially regarding the contradictions between the formulation of policies and actions and the implementation processes. In addition, the connection between extension, teaching, and research makes it possible to problematize the foundations of public security policy, revealing options beyond indiscriminate incarceration.

Keywords:
incarceration; extension; public field; student training; penitentiary system