“Godmothers”, “Sisters-in-Law”, “Sisters” and “Pilgrims”

the incarceration of women and the dynamics of the First Capital Command (PCC)

Abstract

This article is the result of a doctoral research that aimed to understand the structure and functioning of the PCC within the female prisons located in the state of São Paulo. By conducting thirty-five interviews with transsexual women, shoes, men and women, in three different prison units, the investigation sought to analyze whether the procedures of the PCC, built on the basis of male hegemony, when triggered in the daily life of female prisons, end up by intensifying oppression and / or violence, or by giving them a character of representation and legitimacy in the defense of the rights of the population of women prisoners. The research also sought to verify how relations are instituted or negotiated in women's prisons, based on the positions occupied by sisters, sisters-in-law and warriors and how relationships are established with the male members of the PCC, the brothers. In addition, it analyzed how baptisms, punishments and interdictions for baptism, especially with regard to the orientation of affection and sexuality. In the final considerations, the present article points out that although many women show resistance, male domination, undertaken through the sisters' procedures and baptism, the Command consolidated itself in the pavilions of the female penitentiary units, carrying out with the State the management of the dynamics and the daily life in the female penitentiaries of the state of São Paulo.