Information mediation in prison

library praxis for the social reinsertion of prisoners

Abstract

Presents the research conducted with librarians who work or have worked in the Brazilian prison system to enable the deprived population to have access to books, reading, information, construction of meaning, and appropriation of information. This is an exploratory study, with a qualitative approach. As an instrument of data collection, we used the questionnaire prepared in Google Forms and sent it by e-mail to the librarians. To analyze the data, we based ourselves on content analysis by establishing categories. The results show that most librarians believe in taking actions of information mediation in the prison environment and consider that this process can contribute to the social reintegration of the convicted. Even those who are reticent about the prison structure not contributing to social reintegration present a favorable speech about the relevance of the librarian to guide their actions in information mediation when acting in this environment. We conclude that, even when faced with the challenges and specificities of working in the prison environment, information mediation can be considered a practice of deconstruction and reconstruction, as it can help prisoners to have a glimpse of new horizons and see themselves as critical subjects through the appropriation of information.