Mi ingreso a la cárcel

This reflection, expressed in the form of a narrative, arises as part of the PARCCHE research project, and its purpose is to carry out an analysis of the prison environment in the Buen Pastor institution in the city of Bogotá, in particular, in the educational area of said institution from the approach to one of the processes that are developed in this area and which is entrusted to a group of female inmates deprived of liberty called “monitors”, who participate as volunteers accompanying the validation
of the baccalaureate of other inmates of Buen Pastor. A second purpose is to describe the intervention that the researchers carry out with the group of monitors and some of their students aimed at strengthening critical thinking and resilient capacities of people deprived of liberty. These purposes are
framed in the work that the PARCCHE research group has been developing (a critical thinking training for the strengthening of resilient, caring, communicative actions and emotional skills with vulnerable populations in Colombia), from UNIMINUTO. This work is part of a broader project called the BOECIO project, initially led by the University of Seville, and currently being developed in several Latin American countries. In general terms, the research described here has as its frame of reference Stoic philosophy and the application of some narrative strategies with a group of women deprived of their liberty in the Buen Pastor Prison in the city of Bogotá. As part of the results achieved so far, and without the intention of making a generalization of what the prison environment in Colombia is like, this story seeks to offer some points of reflection from which it is possible to affirm that, despite the difficult conditions, such as overcrowding that in turn fosters an environment of violence, corruption
and inequality in prison institutions in Colombia (Jiménez, 2018), taking into account some personal and social variables, it is possible to create in Colombian prison institutions the conditions to strengthen the resocialization processes and thus reduce recidivism levels.
We consider, from the broad framework of this research, that effective resocialization contributes significantly to the construction of citizenship (Rastrojo, 2021), which can, in turn, contribute significantly to the construction of peace in a country that continues to seek reconciliation. On the other hand, the work carried out shows the power of Stoic philosophy, which, far from encouraging passivity and resignation, promotes reasonable actions in circumstances of little clarity about what would be a morally correct action.

The above, together with the use of some narrative strategies not only as a means of coping with one’s own suffering, but mainly as a means of reconfiguring one’s own identity through self-recognition and social recognition in one’s own life support network, constitute indicators of the good path taken by the research group in particular scenarios of social vulnerability.