Interweaving care: a woman’s experience affected by incarceration in a favela in Rio de Janeiro

Colonial aspects of Brazilian society allowed the expansion of incarceration in Brazil, which affects specific social groups, inside and outside the prisons. The article aims to analyze, based on stories from Gisela's life, matters of care linked to the social markers that define her life and the lives of other women affected by incarceration - their own or of a close relative, from an intersectional perspective. Prisons are not isolated: they connect different institutions, dynamics and subjects, especially women. In this paper we discussed the bodily/corporeal extensions of incarceration that affects these women’s bodies, especially black women. Different matters of incarceration were discussed such as care networks; connections between people inside and outside prison; challenges during prison visits; support networks; precarity; violence; affection; and resistance; among others. We considered the difficulties imposed by an oppressive system, but also women’s response to this oppression, developed throughout their lives, building care networks, courageously resisting, claiming the guarantee of rights and Bem Viver/Buen Vivir/Good Living.