The discussion on education within the Brazilian Prison System is strongly connected with the social function of the school, once the criminal policy is directly related to the failure of the prison system, taking into account its primary objectives, viz. resocialize and insert its subjects into society, without the prospect of relapsing into the prison system. Many laws have emerged towards the possibility of emancipatory education and the redemption of sentences, but practically little has been done to alleviate the effects of imprisonment, recidivism and the social consequences, which end up in the retro-feeding effect of the penitentiary system.