Between fear and death: echoes of the Covid-19 pandemic and prison management policy in the lives of criminal police officers from Ceará

Abstract

This article discusses the echoes of the COVID-19 pandemic in the daily life of Ceará’s prison system, focusing on its impacts on the lives of criminal police officers. Data were collected by participant observation and interviews conducted as part of a ethnographic fieldwork for a doctoral research developed from the experience of the main author as a researcher and criminal police officer in Ceará prisons. Changes in prison policy during the pandemic are highlighted amidst the measures adopted to contain the virus spread in prisons, with people who live and work in these spaces being affected by COVID-19 and disciplinarization. It focuses on the pandemic impacts on the lives of criminal police officers who, even in mourning, began to live in fear of contamination and of being the target of war between factions and the State.