Formal and informal controls and punishment: the production of order in the prisons of Sao Paulo

In the last decades the growth of incarceration in Brazil deepened the precariousness of prison conditions and favoured the emergence of internal organised criminal groups established by inmates. These groups sought to create new relationship standards between inmates, prison staff and prison administrators, and between inmates themselves. One of the main groups, the First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital — PCC), gained hegemonic power across a large part of the state of São Paulo’s prison system. This meant great change in the ways prison order was built and maintained.