4 Projects Resocializing Inmates Through Fashion
Brazil has the 3rd largest prison population in the world. Within prisons, projects have opened up new possibilities for detainees
Having a prison system that fails to provide decent living conditions and resocialize its prisoners is not uniquely Brazilian. Data on mass incarceration in countries such as the United States, Russia, India, and Venezuela show that jail does not recover anyone, and in some places, such as the US, it is big business, as the documentary The 13th Amendment revealed. The Global Prison Trends 2018 report points out that despite the global downward trend in crime rates, the number of people incarcerated worldwide continues to grow.
The leader trio in the ranking of the largest prison population in the world, per 100 thousand inhabitants, is the United States, Russia, and Brazil. The data are from 2015/2016, by Infopen (Statistical Information of the Brazilian Penitentiary System), and show that many of the prisoners were not even sentenced. Still, in the 2015/2016 survey, the countries that had more prisoners under these conditions were: India, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, and Brazil.
In Brazil, the number of spots in the Brazilian prison system decreased, while there was a growth in the incarcerated population. In the first half of 2016, there were 3,000 fewer spots and 28,000 more prisoners. Bringing it to a more tangible reality: on average, there are two prisoners for each unit in Brazilian prisons and nine out of ten live in overcrowded units. Most of them are black men, between 18 and 29 years old, with incomplete elementary school studies, and they were arrested for crimes related to drug trafficking or robbery and theft.
It is by focusing on this group of forgotten and marginalized — by both the state and society — that fashion projects have resocialized men and women in various prisons around the country. While a complete reform of the prison system does not happen, some people have managed to find new ways within the garment industry, creating another account for these stories. The numbers and narratives behind the sewing workshops are incredibly positive. In São Paulo, Pano Social was born with social and environmental responsibility. The project promotes the resocialization of former detainees by employing them in their production and customization of clothing, uniforms, and accessories.
According to the company, 1,200 people leave the prison system every month, and not even 10% can reenter the job market. Another fact presented by the project is that 70% of the crimes committed in the city of São Paulo are carried out by former detainees. The company contacts the returning citizens through institutions such as Funap (Prof. Dr. Manoel Pedro Pimentel Foundation), the Penitentiary Administration Secretary (SAP), the project Afroreagge and also through social networks.
Natacha Barros, the co-founder of Pano Social, received the Beth Lobo Human Rights Award at the Legislative Assembly of the State of São Paulo earlier this year for her professional activity and in society.
They steal due to hunger and for their children
When discussing mass incarceration, the media commonly focuses on men, but the number of women who have been arrested in recent decades also follows the growing stats already presented here. According to Conectas, a social human rights organization, between 2000 and 2016, there was a 455% increase in the female prison population. Most of them go into drug trafficking to try to escape hunger and bring livelihoods to their families. The most common profile is young, single, poor, low-income, and uneducated mothers.
Roberta Negrini, the creator of Joaquina Brasil, came across these women in socially vulnerable conditions after deciding to quit the executive job and start her own company. As Roberta began to study the gap between the final price of a piece in the store and the value of its production, she came across the high waste rates of the fashion industry and the inhumane scenario to which female labor is subjected.
“I was able to articulate with some spinning mills to buy the fabrics that would be incinerated for defects and flaws. Then, I reached the moment I needed to think about how to produce. I ended up going to Brás, an obvious place for it in São Paulo. I came across a horrible scene: a workshop with forty, fifty Bolivians, with children strapped to the feet of the machines. I had just had a child and left saying I did not want to enter this market”, she says.
After meeting with a person connected to Afroreggae on the opening day of the project in São Paulo, Roberta witnessed a lady who was begging for employment to secure custody of her children with the judge. “That scene moved me. I asked if she could sew, she said no; so I asked ‘do you want to learn?’ and she said ‘I do’. I said, ‘then you have a job’”, she reports. From that moment on, the brand began to materialize. After a year, Joaquina entered the Butantã Women’s Penitentiary, where she currently employs twenty detainees. They receive a minimum wage, as stipulated by Funap, with working hours from 8 am to 4:30 pm with a 1-hour lunch break.
To teach the seaming process quickly and easily to the woman who needs work and has no knowledge of it, Roberta has developed her own technique. “Practice helps a lot more than theory. A person who recently entered the nucleus shadows another seamstress. She stays by her side, helps in finishing and cleaning the pieces. They start with simple, mechanical sewing machine steps to control the foot, and generally after three months they are already producing pieces of clothes”, she explains. The apprentice then begins to produce the pieces, the first being a t-shirt, the second a dress, and the third a skirt.
According to Roberta, statistics show that former female convicts have a much lower than average employability rate when compared to anyone else. The problem begins before the arrest: 87% of women prisoners never had a regular job. “It’s a vicious cycle. They are usually in poor communities, with 67% being black. The majority of them have no dangerousness rate, only 0.3% of them are convicted of crimes considered dangerous. Most, and that is almost 70%, is for drug trafficking”, she says. With this data, the businesswoman understood the importance of formal employment in the lives of these women.
“The majority of them have no dangerousness rate, only 0.3% of them are convicted of crimes considered dangerous”
It was in a scenario like this that Andresa Ruiz met Joaquina Brasil. Working at the company for a year and two months, Andresa started with no knowledge of sewing, and today she is part of the piece quality testing process. She considers this opportunity as “everything in her life”. “I arrived here without even knowing how to nail a button, I learned everything here. She [Roberta] saw that my performance was better on quality testing and today I clean and review the garments. It is a big responsibility”, she says.
Andresa is part of the statistics cited above: She looked for a job, but whenever the criminal arrest document came up, she was dismissed with a false promise to receive a call from the company. “That’s why crime is full of thieves. Many want to change their lives, have formal jobs. People need to eat, to dress themselves, take care of the children, so they go back to crime”, she states. That was before finding Responsa, a company that connects brands and former inmates.
When she was already registered as a worker in the company — and was under house arrest — the police wanted to arrest Andresa again. When her lawyer, hired by Joaquina, showed her work card, she was released. For Andressa, the document served as proof that she changed her life.
Inmates who knit
It was in search of other alternatives for its production that Raquell Guimarães, founder of Doiselles, entered a prison in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais. “I basically worked with retired ladies. Those who specialize in craftwork usually do it as a hobby. They missed deadlines, I had problems of standardization and delivery, because they were not all together and worked in their breaks”, she says.
It was in 2009 that she visited the Juiz de Fora women’s penitentiary, but by then, the place was already full. But Raquell found a space at Professor Ariosvaldo de Campos Pires Penitentiary, in Linhares (MG). After a series of barriers, she was able to get the project, called Flor de Lótus (Lotus Flower), up. “I made an attempt, and the men were a great surprise regarding the quality of their work”, she says. At the time, three days of work amounted to one day of sentence remission.
In each piece, Raquell witnesses their involvement: “It’s an opportunity that they grasp with great commitment. Often they create a design that comes with a color combination they want, and some are more neutral, others more expansive, a few like wider dots — which demonstrates a more open personality”, she explains. In 2014, in partnership with the brand Iódice, the knit outfits were presented on the Runway at São Paulo Fashion Week.
For Raquell, this manual work represents the beginning of restoration without machine interference. “In the design process, they have the freedom to create. They have to follow a pattern for scale production, though. But we have beautiful stories of stitches they created; some customers say they can feel the positive energy of the piece”, she says.
Currently, the project within the prison is stalled. The nine convicts who started working with Raquell are almost all not behind bars anymore. The designer decided to do a continuity job to employ the graduates. “It was of no use having a project in there, and when the prisoner left, there were no job opportunities. Because nobody offers employment, especially in this crisis, for those who have a criminal record”, she explains.
“Many want to change their lives, have formal jobs. People need to eat, to dress themselves, take care of the children, so they go back to crime”
The state contract has been canceled, and some former incarcerates are still working with her, while others have used their knitting money to pursue other plans such as relocating or buying a motorcycle to work with delivery.
People who make a difference
When handicraft classes such as knitting, crochet, and embroidery taught by Novelaria were highlights of the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo, Lica Isak was sought by the prison pastoral from Adriano Marrey penitentiary, in Guarulhos, São Paulo. They were interested in creating a seaming project on-site, and that is how, in 2015, the Ponto Firme project, led by fashion designer Gustavo Silvestre, was born.
“When I went to find someone to teach in the men’s prison, nobody wanted to go. Gustavo had learned to crochet in Novelaria, and we ended up becoming friends. One day I told him the story, and he was very interested. In the beginning, we had no sponsorship, Novelaria provided needles, books, and threads. It went on like this for two years”, she tells. Lica explains that when creating the methodology, they considered the environment in which they would be taught. Crochet was chosen over knitting because it used a single needle, not so long and less sharp.
Entering the penitentiary with needles, scissors, computers and books was simpler thanks to the intentions of a few people in charge, especially a judge. “He is called João Junior and was the key player in this process. It’s always a person inside that makes all the difference, because of the rules. Everything is complicated when it comes to prison”, she says. With “open doors” for this new resocialization opportunity, the Ponto Firme project has already served more than 150 students. “This prison already has a different characteristic regarding culture. They have drama and music classes. They are very open-minded people”, she asserts.
In the beginning, classes were held once a week and offered a certificate. It granted a day of sentence remission for every 12 hours spent in the session. As interest increased, they progressed to twice a week. In 2018, Ponto Firme brought a collection to the SPFW catwalks, which allowed 20 incarcerated people to tell about their pains, frustrations, and joys through the colors, shapes and music present in the parade. Lica left the project, but Ponto Firme is carried on and was present again in the first edition of 2019 of São Paulo fashion week.
“There is a critical statistic: out of ten prisoners on a retraining program, nine do not go back to crime. It is a huge advantage for society. And the self-confidence they gain, their self-esteem was visible, the possibility to express themselves”, Lica concludes.
Written by Juliana Aguilera
Translation by Carol Bardi
Originally published at modefica.com.br on May 14, 2019.
