Prata da casa: Espaços suspensos, tempos intersticiais e atividades socioculturais na prisão

The sociocultural sector has been in recent times an integral part of Portuguese prison management. Inmates are encouraged to proactively engage in these activities, to put their social and artistic skills to use, and to find in them some relief in the prison’s disciplinary pressure. As they participate in these “suspended spaces” wherein ludic and artistic activities are organized, certain inmates become “prata da casa” (homegrown pride), acting as the prison’s public image and benefiting from a close relationship with the prison staff. Drawing from this ambiguous status, we propose an analysis of a penal modality whereby inmates partly take charge of managing their own sentence.