This article examines the ethical, operational and interdisciplinary challenges encountered by psychosocial teams in implementing the sentence reduction through reading programme within the Brazilian prison system. Drawing on a qualitative multiple case study conducted in five penitentiary units in the state of Maranhão between 2022 and 2025, the research analysed the practices of seven professionals (five social workers and two psychologists) through documentary analysis and participant observation. The findings indicate that, although reading constitutes a potentially emancipatory tool, its impact is constrained by the lack of standardisation, limited institutional resources and tensions between professional spheres. The study concludes that the work of the psychosocial team, guided by ethical-political projects committed to human rights, is essential to challenge the punitive logic and to strengthen more humanised processes of social reintegration.
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Sentence reduction through reading in prisons: a case study on the challenges faced by psychosocial teams in Brazil
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