Fighting Mass Incarceration, Fighting for Life: Elements for a History of the Present in Brazil

In this article, we analyze how police violence and practices of incarceration foster the emergence of a multifaceted political field, which mobilizes various collectives, movements, and activists. We seek to build an analytical plan that allows incorporating these political movements in the prison studies area, demonstrating how incarceration, together with other punitive devices, constitutes a point of articulation and transformation of these social movements. Taking as an empirical reference experiencesof political articulation in São Paulo, Brazil, we highlight the centrality that prison acquires on the agenda of these movements and the role that victims of state violence perform in them.