Humanitas360 inaugurates social cooperative in São Luís women’s prison unit
The Humanitas360 Institute inaugurated last Wednesday (August 26th) morning the Cuxá Cooperative, an initiative that will encourage social entrepreneurship among imprisoned women in Pedrinhas (the São Luís Women’s Prison Unit). The project is a partnership formed with the Government of Maranhão, through the State Penitentiary Administration Office (SEAP-MA) and the National Justice Council of Brazil (CNJ).
The cooperative is a part of the “Justiça Presente” (Justice Present) program, and will provide those imprisoned in the Women’s Prison Unit of the São Luís Penitentiary Complex with classes on cutting and sewing, crochet and other segments with which they have an affinity, so they can endeavor after fulfilling the resocialization process. The exclusive collections they produced will be sold on the website tereza.org.br, and the revenue will go in full to the cooperative members.
At an online event, representatives of the Government, as well as of the Humanitas360 Institute and the Judiciary, underscored the importance of the cooperative in the process of resocializing interns. Marcelo de Silva Moreira, representative of the Maranhão Court of Justice, stressed the importance of offering an opportunity to people who comply with socio-educational measures. “The conditions of serving sentences and socio-educational measures in Brazil need to be guaranteed by the principles of our Constitution. By installing the Cuxá Cooperative today, we are fulfilling our obligation and responsibility to give these people an opportunity to have a fresh start, move on.”
The president of the Humanitas360 Institute, Patrícia Villela Marino, reasoned that the reintegration of interns into society depends fundamentally on a reconciliation process. “This is what we are doing with the cooperative: reconciling people so that they can have a new chance, a new opportunity and, thus, enjoy and get the best out of civic life.” “The cooperative represents a new door that opens for Brazilian society to understand the importance of promoting human dignity in the criminal justice system, a value that needs to be permanently safeguarded if we are to be strengthened as a just society that is attentive to the fundamental rights of every human being,” said CNJ general secretary, judge Carlos Vieira von Adamek.
Vice Governor Carlos Brandão highlighted the advances made in the State Penitentiary System in the last five years. “It is serious work, and with great results. Today we have more than three thousand inmates working, being trained, in addition to countless advances that made our prison management internationally recognized and a reference for other states,” he emphasized.