"Indigenous are complicated”: an analysis of the carcerary situation of indigenous under sentence in Naviraí – MS

Abstract

Act No. 6001/1973, known as the Indian Statute and the 1988 Federal Constitution of Brazil are two legal frameworks peremptory and resulting from substantive law and set forth by non-Indians for the Indians. In spite of that, its effectiveness turns out to be deficient both in terms of its actual enforcement by the public power, and due to the misunderstandings that such legal devices engender in relation to those who should be their major target: the indigenous people. This paper presents an analysis of the processes that criminalize Indians, especially those Indians who serve time in the maximum security prison in the city of Naviraí-MS. As a result, the substantive state legal system is shown to cause and naturalize inter-ethnic violence instead of brining social peace by denying the plurality that could come from customary law. In order to achieve the scope defined for the topic, in addition to reading books and scientific articles, a survey of official data was conducted from the files of the Department of Justice and Public Security of the State Mato Grosso do Sul – SEJUSP, and also a set of informal interviews.