From Rehabilitation to Reintegration: Axiological Elements of Bakhtin’s Circle in the Change of Terminology in Prison Units of Pará

Abstract

This article analyzes, from the perspective of the axiological elements of Bakhtin’s Circle (Volóchinov, 2019 [1926]), the terminological change in prison units in the state of Pará, focusing on the name change of the Cametá prison in Pará from “Recovery Center” to “Custody and Reintegration Unit.” The objective is to understand the ideological meanings underlying the replacement of the term “recovery” with the term “reintegration,” highlighting how this change seems to reflect the state’s attempt to rebuild the image of the prison system. The research is qualitative and dialogical in nature, centered on Discourse Analysis (DA), with the object of analysis being discourses inscribed in official documents and mainstream media reports, based on Bakhtinian categories of value judgment, intonation, and extraverbal elements. The results indicate that the new nomenclature, far from being neutral, is loaded with ideological intentions and represents, so to speak, an institutional effort to reconfigure social perceptions of prison, camouflaging, in a way, other issues such as overcrowding and escapes, for example. It is concluded that institutional language, with the power of truth, is used strategically to produce a new image of the penal system, sustained by social, ideological, historical, and political values.