Change, Resistance and Convergence through and beyond Uruguay’s Prison Reform

Competing Conceptions of Authority and Prison Order: Change, Resistance and Convergence through and beyond Uruguay’s Prison Reform

Speaker: Dr Ana Vigna, University of the Republic, Uruguay.

Abstract:

During Uruguay’s progressive administrations (2005–2020), an ambitious prison reform sought to replace the historically dominant punitive and security-oriented model with a socio-educational approach grounded in human rights principles. A key component of this reform was the creation of a new category of civilian prison officers intended to professionalize prison work and promote new forms of authority and prisoner management.

Drawing on in-depth interviews with police and civilian prison officers, documentary analysis, and unstructured observation, this paper examines how these two groups understand authority, exercise power, and negotiate prison order. The analysis compares two moments in time: the reform period itself and the contemporary context, following five years of centre-right government and significant changes in the crime landscape.

The findings reveal that while the reform introduced and legitimized alternative understandings of prison work, long-standing institutional practices proved highly resilient, generating processes of adaptation, resistance, and partial convergence between punitive and socio-educational approaches to prison governance. The Uruguayan case illustrates both the possibilities and the limits of organizational change in coercive institutions.

Bio:

Ana Vigna holds a PhD in Sociology and is a faculty member at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of the Republic, Uruguay. Her research focuses on sociology of punishment, criminal justice, prison policies, and gender.

This workshop is part of the Social Analysis of Penalities Across Boundaries series which is co-organised by Professor Richard Sparks and Professor Máximo Sozzo.