Security measure and necropolitics

Barbacena echoes on the contemporary criminal legislation

Abstract

Based on the analysis of the concepts of biopower, biopolitics, state of exception and necropolitics, presented and developed by modern and contemporary philosophers such as Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben and Achille Mbembe, this paper intends to present a current reading on power and sovereignty applied to the Law, specifically, in reference of the institute of security measure, foreseen in the Penal Code. In order to fulfill this objective, the text analyzes the years of activity of Hospital Colônia de Barbacena in the 20th century, as it believes that remembering the horrors committed and justified by the coupling between Law and Psychiatry allows to identify an expression of the death politics orchestrated by the state and supported by society. Furthermore, based on this historical context, it is proposed to produce a brief study on the evolution of criminal legislation that deals with people with mental disabilities in conflict with the law. Thus, it aims to detect flaws and extralegal practices that prevent it from suiting to the current constitutional text. Finally, the paper aims to question the existence of solutions outside the Criminal Law.