Between diagnosis and public policy: obstacles and challenges of reading practice in prison environments

This article analyses the normative and institutional trajectory that culminated in the National Plan to Foster Reading in a Liberty Deprivation Environment, launched in Brazil in 2023. Among the initiatives aimed at consolidating a policy that guarantees the right to read and sentence remission through reading in prisons, we highlight the National Census of Reading Practices in the Prison System, promoted by the National Council of Justice with support from DEPEN/MJ, in which we act as coordinators of research activities. Unprecedented in scope, the Census enabled an in-depth diagnosis of all Brazilian prison units through two stages — quantitative (survey) and qualitative (semi-structured interviews) — structured around four thematic axes: establishments’ identification; education sectors’ mapping, schooling levels, active enrolment and educational spaces; libraries and reading spaces’ mapping, along with their human and bibliographic resources; and a socio-educational diagnosis of practices for accessing and promoting reading, including existing projects, number of participants, objectives, methodologies, collections, activity frequency and mobilised actors. Through a critical account, the article presents processes and methodologies used in the Census and analyses the results achieved, assessing obstacles, challenges, possibilities, and difficulties at both national and state levels, offering the notes necessary to consolidate a reading policy in prison environments.