Jungle I.D.: Educational Reform Inside the Brazilian Paramilitary Police

Abstract

The article draws on direct observation and interviews with 27 of a total class of 70, in the Military Training Camp of the Military Police ( Polícia Militar ), of the State of Bahia, Brazil. This activity is conducted in a secluded area of the jungle and has great psychological repercussions for both trainers and trainees. Through the sacrifice, humiliation, and pain imposed on the recruits, a team of 25 instructors consolidates the rite of passage from the condition of common civilian to that of Officer of the Military Police. Each year the Military Training Camp causes great damage to its victims, compounding its notoriety for brutal and dangerous training. Under the pretext of physical and psychological conditioning, the candidates learn antiguerilla military techniques rather than methods of policing. We argue that such training is incompatible with the police reform, and that it contradicts and undermines the democratization agenda of the new instructional program of the Police Academy. The study advocates the elimination of this paramilitary training and related practices, so as to change the Military Police culture and effect the reforms supposedly already underway in the Brazilian Police Forces. The study also concludes that the overcoming of this resistance is beyond the scope of the reform of police education, depending on broader changes to guarantee the consolidation of citizenship and democratization of policing.

Keywords:

• Paramilitary Police
• Educational Reform
• Institutional Resistance
• Social Changes