Disability, Recognition and (In)Justice: notes on the situation of incarcerated women and incarcerated women mothers of people with disabilities in Brazil

Abstract

Invisible contradictions and oppressions rise if we pay attention to the situation of women, especially those with disabilities or mothers of people with disabilities, in the Brazilian prison system. Prison context reproduces a sexist, patriarchal and conservative society, excluding the specificities that compose the universe of women, whether in relation to sexual orientation, race, age, disability, motherhood, nationality, etc. In the light of justice as recognition and using documents and bibliographic research, this paper aims to reflect on how neglecting diversity of experiences of recognition violates identities and denies rights for imprisoned disabled women as well as imprisoned mothers of disabled people. Our goal was to investigate if there is a lack of recognition of these women expressed by the precariousness of data, studies, and indicators, which consequently hides violations in the access to basic rights of these women and their offspring. The argument is structured in two axes, namely: a) critical analysis of the invisibility of women with disabilities and mothers of people with disabilities incarcerated in Brazil in the light of justice as recognition; b) case study on the rights (and violations) of mothers of people with disabilities incarcerated from the Habeas Corpus Coletivo 165.704, which indicates the replacement of provisional by home detention for mothers of children under 12 and of people with disabilities. Framing the situation of these women in terms of justice as recognition reverberates the relational character of justice and, from that, reinforces the necessary discussion on the structuring of our social ethos, which makes us ableists and supporters of a society that punishes people for who they are, not by what they do.