Pandemic, Prisons and Criminal Justice: a study on habeas corpus filed at the Court of Justice of Mato Grosso do Sul (2020 – 2022)

Abstract

The article presents partial results of a research that aims to understand the impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic and Recommendation 62 of the National Council of Justice on the prison system. To this end, quantitative and qualitative data on habeas corpus filed at the Mato Grosso do Sul Court of Justice in the period from 2020 to 2022 were analyzed. Initially, the total number of habeas corpus filed throughout the State before and during the Pandemic was collected to, then, collect data relating to habeas corpus arising only from the District of Campo Grande and for the crimes of drug trafficking, robbery, theft and homicides. Based on this last survey and from reading the complete content of the judgments, several habeas corpus variables were raised that made direct mention of Recommendation 62, totaling 390 habeas corpus that also constituted the basis for the qualitative analysis. In this article, we will present the results of the quantitative analysis and, also, a brief qualitative analysis of two habeas corpus that, although similar, had different outcomes, demonstrating the effects of the “free motivated conviction” on the inequality of judicial decisions.