THE REVERSE SIDE OF THERAPEUTIC COMMUNITIES – THE IMPACT OF THE EXPANSION OF TCs ON ADOLESCENTS: RISKS OF DEATH, RIGHTS VIOLATIONS, AND THE REEMERGENCE OF ASYLUM PRACTICES UNDER THE GUISE OF “CURE”

Abstract

The recent expansion of therapeutic communities (TCs) in Brazil has been accompanied by successive reports of systematic human rights violations, especially when children and adolescents are subjected to isolation, coercion, and violence under the discourse of “cure.” Official reports – such as those produced by the National Mechanism for the Prevention and Combat of Torture (MNPCT), in partnership with the Psychology and Ladinidades Group at the University of Brasília (UnB) – show that 100% of inspected TCs presented severe violations, including deprivation of liberty, physical aggression, threats with weapons, forced labor disguised as “work therapy,” religious violence, and the administration of controlled medication without technical criteria. In this context, the article analyzes the impact of the expansion of therapeutic communities on adolescents, understood as a group whose vulnerability is intensified by the illegal deprivation of liberty, the rupture of family bonds, the imposition of punitive and religious disciplinary practices, and the revival of asylum-based logics incompatible with the principles of the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform, the Psychosocial Care Network (RAPS), and the Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA/1990). Thus, the research aims to examine how the TC network operates as a device for managing poverty, youth, and drug use, producing concrete risks of death, institutional violence, and rights violations, while legitimizing itself through moralizing narratives of resocialization. Based on this framework, the guiding research question is: how has the expansion of therapeutic communities – coupled with state funding and regulatory gaps – produced a context of rights violations, institutional suffering, and the reactivation of asylum practices in the care of adolescents, and what are the consequences for the comprehensive protection guaranteed by Brazilian legislation? Theoretically, the study draws on works by Agamben (1995, 2007, 2014), Basaglia (1968, 1980, 1987, 2000, 2005, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018), Becker (1998), Bourgois (2002), Butler (2004, 2009), Castel (1985), Cooper (1972, 1974), Foucault (2000, 2001, 2002, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014), Goffman (1961, 1982, 1986, 2009, 2017), Hirdes (2008), Karam (1991), Szasz (1961, 1971, 1974, 1994, 2010), Silveira (1981, 1995, 2001), Velho (1985, 1998), Codato (2014), MNPCT Report (2025), among others. The research is qualitative (Minayo, 2008), bibliographic and descriptive (Gil, 2008), and guided by a comprehensive analytical approach (Weber, 1964). Findings show that therapeutic communities, far from representing spaces of care, function as environments of youth disciplining, where deprivation of liberty, institutional violence, and structured neglect constitute permanent risks to the lives and dignity of adolescents. The study demonstrates that the combination of accelerated expansion, loosely regulated state funding, and weak oversight creates a scenario in which asylum-based practices are revived under the discourse of “cure,” deepening trauma, severing bonds, and violating fundamental legal principles. It also shows that such institutions reinforce mechanisms of poverty governance, moralize psychic suffering, and consolidate contemporary forms of exclusion incompatible with the comprehensive protection provided by the ECA, RAPS, and the Psychiatric Reform. In summary, the research reveals that the continuity of this model deepens inequalities and legitimizes violence that, instead of promoting care, produces long-lasting harm and silences developing subjects.