The purpose of serving a prison sentence is not isolating but inducing the perpetrators of crimes to refrain from committing offences in the future. This is possible when there are positive changes in their attitudes, and in particular when they create a need to respect the legal order and a sense of responsibility for their actions. For this purpose, in addition to other means of influence such as work, education, social contacts, cultural and educational activities and sports, or therapy, it is proposed to the detainees to participate in group resocialization programs. The article presents an example of resocialization program dedicated to convicted juveniles entitled “Butterfly Effect”. It presents the theoretical foundations of the program, the spectrum of objectives and results, the methods to achieve them, and scenario activities.
W artykule omawiane są aktualne przepisy prawne regulujące zadania i obowiązki kuratorów sądowych, jak również błędne rozumienie roli kuratorów sądowych w środkach masowego przekazu, wśród pracowników innych instytucji oraz podopiecznych kuratorów. Autorzy opisali kilka najistotniejszych różnic w pracy z jednostką oraz jego środowiskiem pomiędzy kuratorami zawodowymi, pracownikami socjalnymi i funkcjonariuszami policji. Podkreślili, że zrozumienie różnic w zakresie obowiązków, jak również podjęcie efektywnej współpracy, to podstawowe czynniki mające wpływ na efektywność oddziaływań resocjalizacyjnych.
EN
The article discusses the current legal regulations dealing with the tasks and duties of the court officers as well as the misinterpretation of the actual role of the court officers in the mass media, among the staff working in various institutions and the persons being under the officers’ charge. The authors have described a few most essential differences in the work with an individual and his background, among the professional court officers, social workers and police officers. They have pointed out that understanding the differences within the specific duties as well as undertaking an effective cooperation are the key factors that have an impact on the efficacy of the rehabilitative operations.
Isolation resulting from imprisonment disrupts the way of human natural functioning. It also leads to deprivation of natural human needs which forces the convicts to adapt to new living conditions. Strategies of adaptation among imprisoned women are characterized by kind of intimacy between the inmates and concentration on feelings. Homosexual erotic relationships are very important part of imprisoned women’s social and emotional life though they rarely depend on actual sexual orientation. In the case of imprisoned women, entering into intimate relationships with other inmates is mostly result of the desire to survive, social or emotional factors but also materialistic motives or subculture influence. It has been observed that imprisoned women have tendencies to recreate in prison some relationship patterns to those which occur on freedom and also to engage into emotional and partner relationship. These observations create possibilities for therapeutic and resocialization influence based not only on education process but also on appealing to prisoner’s inner world of feelings and experience.
The article discusses the current legal regulations dealing with the tasks and duties of the court officers as well as the misinterpretation of the actual role of the court officers in the mass media, among the staff working in various institutions and the persons being under the officers’ charge. The authors have described a few most essential differences in the work with an individual and his background, among the professional court officers, social workers and police officers. They have pointed out that understanding the differences within the specific duties as well as undertaking an effective cooperation are the key factors that have an impact on the efficacy of the rehabilitative operations.
PL
W artykule omawiane są aktualne przepisy prawne regulujące zadania i obowiązki kuratorów sądowych, jak również błędne rozumienie roli kuratorów sądowych w środkach masowego przekazu, wśród pracowników innych instytucji oraz podopiecznych kuratorów. Autorzy opisali kilka najistotniejszych różnic w pracy z jednostką oraz jego środowiskiem pomiędzy kuratorami zawodowymi, pracownikami socjalnymi i funkcjonariuszami policji. Podkreślili, że zrozumienie różnic w zakresie obowiązków, jak również podjęcie efektywnej współpracy, to podstawowe czynniki mające wpływ na efektywność oddziaływań resocjalizacyjnych.
Presented text refers ethos of service problems in the activities of resocialization staff. I try to define the tasks, features and specificity of resocialization staff. I analyze the ethical aspects of this job. It is worth of demand an answer on the question, what kind of activity is that work. It is important to ask, if it is possible to say that it is only a job or probably something more - public service, mission, vocation? I try to refer this question properly in the text.
A prison library is an institution intended to provide convicts with access to literature, culture, and education. In Poland, the approach to functions of prisons and prison libraries changed with political system transformation. After 1989 the penology was modified from the repressive model to the rehabilitative one. Prisoners can participate in cultural events, such as theatre performances, book clubs and prison newspapers publishing. Such involvement should be based on well-equipped library supervised by aqualified librarian. The reality is different, but statistics of Central Statistical Office of Poland (GUS) reveal that prison libraries in Poland are constantly developing. The author of the work conducted the survey in the prison in Rawicz aimed at the exploration of prisoners’ readership. The analysis involved 50 individuals. According to the study’s results, convicts consider the library as anecessary institution, which they use willingly. Most of the respondents admitted that they read books, while almost all of them reported reading the press. The most popular literary genres among the surveyed turned out to be fantastic and detective stories.
The main issue related to social rehabilitation is its effectiveness. Is it possible to bridge the gulf that exists between a prisoner in custody and people who enjoy freedom? Are they alike? Or are they so very much different that social rehabilitation is impossible? There is a whole array of questions and answers. Most opinions hold that social rehabilitation is not possible. The author of the article suggests that a positive answer to these questions will only be possible when we reach for the concept of man and discover the truth that inmates and people outside corrective institutions are exactly the same. Thus our elementary task is to discover the truth about the excluded as well as to help the excluded discover the same truth. This discovery is attained through learning, i.e. education.
One of the most controversial aspects regarding resocialization is a doubt whether imprisonment, which entails isolation, enables efficient educational activity. To be able to prognostically look at the process of work with prisoners, one should, first of all, give a closer look to the very definition of resocialization. The simplest way is to comprehend it as a discipline regarding disfunctions, defects and inability to adapt to the society. It leads toward a conviction that using the provisions of law in force we are able to influence or even change an individual’s standpoint. Many researchers focusing on the definition notices that the number of views is equal to the number of papers. A critique touches mainly pedagogues whose works are the most numerous. They are criticized for that without the familiarity of basic legal provisions it is impossible to solve all dilemmas concerning so broad topic which is the change of man’s personality.
Rodzina jako czynnik socjalizacyjny znajduje się w centrum zainteresowania wielu dyscyplin, w tym pedagogiki społecznej i resocjalizacyjnej. Jest ona jednym z najważniejszych czynników zewnętrznych w etiologii dewiacji społecznej; dysfunkcyjne środowisko rodzinne jest zwykle jedną z głównych przyczyn zaburzeń zachowania. Przestępczość międzypokoleniowa, nadużywanie substancji uzależniających przez członków rodziny, zaniedbania i przemoc, bezrobocie i wykluczenie społeczne często pojawiają się we wspomnieniach przestępców; problemy edukacyjne pojawiają się w dzieciństwie. Rodzina jest również ważnym a często zapomnianym czynnikiem w resocjalizacji i reintegracji społecznej przestępców. Gra główną rolę w „pomocy” i resocjalizacji osób w etopedagogicznych placówkach wszelkiego typu – w sierocińcach ze szkołami, w zakładach poprawczych, w ośrodkach edukacyjnych i w zakładach karnych, jak również w postępowaniu kuratora (kuratora społecznego lub kuratora dzieci i młodocianych), jak również kuratorów sądowych i mediatorów (okres próbny, warunkowe zwolnienie). W zakładach penitencjarnych kontakt z rodziną jest częścią programu resocjalizacji. Wsparcie ze strony rodziny jest jednym z podstawowych praw osadzonego. W procesie penitencjarnym rodzina jest jednym z największych czynników motywujących; może pomagać w implementacji programów resocjalizacji i wspiera zdrowie psychiczne osadzonych. Jednak rodzina może być również czynnikiem negatywnym, na przykład w przypadku przemycania nielegalnych towarów do więzienia lub innego negatywnego wpływu (np. przestępczość międzypokoleniowa).
EN
The family as a socializing factor stands in the centre of interest of many disciplines, including social and re-social pedagogy. It is one of the most important external factors within the etiology of social deviance; dysfunctional family environment is usually one of the main causes of behavioural disorders. Inter-generational crime, abuse of addictive substances by family members, neglect and abuse, unemployment and social exclusion often appear in the anamnesis of delinquent individuals; educational problems occur in childhood. The family is also an important and often neglected factor in the re-socialization and re-integration of delinquent individuals. It plays a crucial role in the “remedy” and resocialization of individuals in all types of etopedical care facilities – in children's homes with schools, youth detention institutes, educational care centres or in prison (criminal measures), as well as in the treatment by a curator (social curator or curator for children and juveniles), or a probation and mediation officer (probation program, probation supervision). In detention facilities within the penitentiary practice contact with the family is a part of rehabilitation programs, so-called treatment programs. Support of the relationship with the family is also one of the fundamental rights of the convict. In the penitentiary process the family is one of the biggest motivating factors; it may be helpful in the implementing of treatment programs and it helps to maintain the good mental health of convicts. But the family may also represent a negative factor, e.g. in a case of the introduction of illegal goods into prisons or in the case of further negative and undesirable effects on the individual (e.g. inter-generational crime).
Since the beginning of its establishment, Church institutions have taken the care of their faithful, as well as those who have been sentenced to imprisonment. In the old ages, spiritual and material help was initiated for people who were sent to prison for their faith, and funds were collected for their purchase. In prison, a priest not only fulfi lled the mission of the confessor, but also educated the prisoners, teaching them to read, write, do arithmetic and gave them religious instruction. Nowadays, in Poland and in the world, there are more and more organizations of clergy and lay people who deal in a comprehensive way with helping prisoners, as well as former prisoners and their families. However, the main task of priests is to work with the inmates on their spiritual life and form proper Christian attitudes.
PL
Instytucje kościelne od początków swego powstania otaczały opieką swoich wiernych, a także tych, którzy zostali skazani na karę pozbawienia wolności. W dawnych wiekach inicjowano pomoc duchową i materialną dla osób, które za wiarę trafi ały do więzień, a także zbierano fundusze do ich wykupu. Duchowny posługujący w więzieniu nie tylko spełniał funkcję spowiednika, ale także był edukatorem osadzonych, ucząc ich czytania, pisania, rachunków i religii. Współcześnie w Polsce i na świecie powstaje coraz więcej organizacji zrzeszających duchownych i świeckich, którzy w sposób kompleksowy zajmują się niesieniem pomocy więźniom, a także byłym więźniom oraz ich rodzinom. Głównym jednak zadaniem duszpasterzy więziennych pozostaje wciąż praca z osadzonymi nad ich życiem duchowym i formowaniem u nich właściwych postaw chrześcijańskich.
The purpose of this article is to identify opportunities for change in the field of behavioral habits, beliefs, as well as the emotional life of a person, which reveal themselves in the light of the results of research conducted by neurologists using cutting-edge brain imaging techniques. Knowledge of neuroscience shows that the changes needed in the process resocialization, are possible and available to people who consciously seek them and control them. This knowledge should be used in the case of social reintegration addressed to people who have problems with self-awareness, motivation for change and belief in success. Key words: resocialization, the process of resocialization, neuroscience.
PL
Celem niniejszego artykułu jest rozpoznanie możliwości zmian w sferze behawioralnych nawyków, przekonań, jak również życia emocjonalnego człowieka, jakie ujawniają się w świetle wyników badań prowadzonych przez neurologów za pomocą najnowocześniejszych technik obrazowania mózgu. Wiedza z zakresu neuronauk dowodzi bowiem, że zmiany, niezbędne w procesie resocjalizacji, są możliwe, gdy świadomie do nich się dąży i nimi steruje. Wiedzę tę należy wykorzystywać w przypadku oddziaływań resocjalizacyjnych skierowanych do osób, które mają problem z samoświadomością, motywacją do zmian i wiarą w osiągnięcie sukcesu.
Autorzy prezentują nowe spojrzenie na perspektywę temporalną, mogącą pełnić rolę uzupełniającą w resocjalizacji osób odbywających kary izolacyjne w warunkach zakładu karnego. Nieuwzględnianie w dotychczasowych koncepcjach resocjalizacji osobistych preferencji temporalnych skazanych może być przyczyną niepowodzeń podejmowanych oddziaływań. Indywidualizacja propozycji resocjalizacyjnych w odniesieniu do dominującej orientacji czasowej osoby osadzonej czyni je bardziej adekwatnymi wobec osobistych mechanizmów psychologicznego funkcjonowania, bardziej dostępnymi poznawczo dla skazanego, motywuje do większego zaangażowania w tak zaplanowaną resocjalizację i równocześnie sprzyja zrównoważeniu perspektywy temporalnej w przyszłości. Zbalansowana orientacja czasowa jest zasobem, który po opuszczeniu zakładu karnego przez skazanego będzie sprzyjał jego odejściu od przestępczości.
EN
The paper is to offer a new look at temporal perspective, which might supplement resocialization of persons serving custodial sentences in prisons. The neglect of temporal aspects might cause failures in correctional operations. The individualization of resocialization proposals by referring them to the dominant temporal orientation of an inmate makes them more suitable for the convict’s psychological functioning’s mechanisms and more cognitively accessible for him/her. It motivates to larger commitment to participate in so planned resocialization and creates favourable conditions for time perspective to be balanced. Optimally, a balanced time perspective is a resource, which may increase the likelihood individuals will avoid engaging in criminal behaviour after being released from prison. Key words: time perspective, prison sentence, resocialization.
One of the manifestations of the social changes observed over the last decades is the increase in the availability of moodchanging substances and the tendency of young people to use them. This phenomenon is inseparable from a specific lifestyle and often results in exceeding social norms and breaking the law. Therefore, the current challenge is to seek effective opportunities to help addicts. As far as youth is concerned, the dimension of institutional rehabilitation, ensuring temporary isolation from the social context related to the current lifestyle, becomes particularly important. This article presents an understanding of the phenomenon of addiction from the perspective of a solution-focused approach according to the concept of the Belgian psychiatrist Luc Isebaert, co-author of the Bruges Model. Moreover, it presents institutional solutions tested in clinical conditions at the24-hour Youth Addiction Treatment Clinic in Toruń, based on the idea of free choice. Free choice, taking into account the trap of addiction, can be treated as a desired outcome of rehabilitation effects, as well as a means leading to it. The key to responsibility remains independence, which we create by building subjectivity and freedom of choice.
Interestingly enough, there are many types of penal institutions all over the world. Most of them are overcrowded, and harsh, humiliating conditions and mandatory rules surround the inmates. Other prisons swim on the sea, or located in picturesque environment over the sea or in one of the Tuscan archipelagos, or located in a dukedom. The rest could represent “five star” penal institutions with all amenities, conveniences, and facilities of tennis court, horse riding or swimming in the sea. Eco prisons also exist with solar panels, bio diesel, recycling, and cultivations. Inmates may live in communities, without the supervision of prison wardens and the lack of window-grates, moreover, they move free. They buy their “own cells”, and playing children, stalls, restaurants, hairdresser’s, and even a hotel are in the vicinity of their “cells”. Other penal institutions accommodate the family members as well, which help children bound their convicted parents, and “disguise” the penal institution in order not to face real prison conditions. Even in the middle of the desert, in military tents inmates are located, and dressed in pink clothes to avoid T-shirt theft. Others are locked in a stone desert or far away in Siberia. Whereas one penal institution can locate only two convicts, others may accommodate ten thousand ones. There is a wide spectrum, which can range from the most lenient penal institutions, to the strictest ones.
Celem niniejszego artykułu jest rozpoznanie możliwości zmian w sferze behawioralnych nawyków, przekonań, jak również życia emocjonalnego człowieka, jakie ujawniają się w świetle wyników badań prowadzonych przez neurologów za pomocą najnowocześniejszych technik obrazowania mózgu. Wiedza z zakresu neuronauk dowodzi bowiem, że zmiany, niezbędne w procesie resocjalizacji, są możliwe, gdy świadomie do nich się dąży i nimi steruje. Wiedzę tę należy wykorzystywać w przypadku oddziaływań resocjalizacyjnych skierowanych do osób, które mają problem z samoświadomością, motywacją do zmian i wiarą w osiągnięcie sukcesu.
EN
The purpose of this article is to identify opportunities for change in the field of behavioral habits, beliefs, as well as the emotional life of a person, which reveal themselves in the light of the results of research conducted by neurologists using cutting-edge brain imaging techniques. Knowledge of neuroscience shows that the changes needed in the process resocialization, are possible and available to people who consciously seek them and control them. This knowledge should be used in the case of social reintegration addressed to people who have problems with self-awareness, motivation for change and belief in success. Key words: resocialization, the process of resocialization, neuroscience.
Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St. James, is a pilgrimage route which has existed for more than 1,000 years and leads to the Shrine of St. James in Santiago de Compostela. Currently, it is the best-known pilgrimage and cultural route in Europe. It is often referred to as the “most beautiful road in the world” or the “main street in Europe”. The Way of St. James has been used in prisoner resocialization schemes for many years in Western Europe and since 2013 also in Poland. “New Way” is an innovative project consisting of a two-week pilgrimage of a prisoner who straight from the penitentiary sets out along with the guardian on the Way of St. Jakub from Lublin to Krakow. The aim of the program is to change a young person who, while walking for more than 400 km along Camino de Santiago, has a lot of time to think about his previous life. The task of the guardian is to offer assistance and individual work with the prisoner. Great importance in the project is attributed to the meetings of the prisoner with residents and pastors, who often help on the pilgrimage. An important element of the „New Way” is also to provide young person, after completing the Camino, study of professional competence, referral to an internship and then help in finding a job.
This article traces the history of penitentiary and post-penitentiary practices by churches (primarily Catholic) and social aid organizations in Poland. The involvement of churches and social organizations in prisoner assistance began, partly underground, during the period of the Polish partitions, and took on formal roles and structures during the Second Republic of Poland (1918–39). However, beginning with the Second World War and until the year 1980 the earlier practice of ministry in prisons was significantly limited. The Nazi and Soviet hostile attitude towards religion was continued and in some ways exacerbated during the period of communist governments in Poland, when the function of prison chaplain as well as prison chapels themselves were liquidated, and all that officially remained of the conduct of religious services in prisons was the administration of last sacraments to prisoners about to be executed or terminally ill. During this period the church’s support for prisoners was mostly limited to that offered by clergymen who were themselves inmates. The role of prison ministry and social aid organisations in both penitentiary and post-penitentiary work was revived following the strikes, and consequent mass arrests, which took place in August 1980. The new scope and dimension of prison ministry began with the re-instatement of the function of prison chaplain and has evolved in recent decades to the point where today prison chaplains and church ministries, working alongside non-governmental aid organizations, have become an indispensable part of both the administration of prisons as well as post-penitentiary supervision and assistance.
The authors of the penal code of 1932 modelled their reaction measures on the best contemporary standards. The system of criminal response was based on a double-track model, in German called zwei Spuren, in Italian – doppio binario, in which, along with penalties, there were also preventive measures. This system grew out of certain political and criminal assumptions of the sociological school, expressed most fully in the works of Franz von Liszt. Return in contemporary law, to the wide use of preventive measures, post and pre-penal, forces us to return to the sources and to critically examine the assumptions of the indicated approach, including the idea of an incorrigible criminal who should be isolated, not in relation to what he did, but because of who he is. Tracing the history of regulations, in particular their practical application should be a lesson for modern lawmakers.
The issue of homelessness is a phenomenon that´s very serious for a long time not only in Slovakia, but also in other countries of the world. Homelessness is considered as one of the most extreme consequences of poverty and social exclusion. The article emphasizes activities whose purpose is to help homeless people from physical, psychological, and social harm and enable them to return to society. The main aim of the article is to focus on methods of prevention by which it´s possible to eliminate the emergence of homelessness. This article is a partial output of the project VEGA 1/0595/21 – Public administration interventions at the time of COVID-19 and their impact on the quality of life of citizens of selected communities.
Assistance to persons released from prison is considered an indispensable stage of the process of carrying out the penalty of imprisonment. The authors engaged in that subject agree as to the role of postpenitentiary assistance in reduction of relapse into crime and its connection with social readjustment of offenders. In my opinion, that approach is insufficient for a full justification of the actual sense of assistance rendered to persons on release from prison. Pragmatic researchers treat the slogan of helping prisoners as obvious and focus on the related legal and organizational problems. Lacking strict criteria of appraisal, the analysis of legal solutions resolves itself usually into approving comments and to attributing the indolent functioning of the assisting agencies to sluggishness of the actual care providers. The suggested conceptions of improvement of the after-care resolve themselves into improvement of the existing institutional and legal solutions and corrections of their model which remains the same all the time despite the fact that a succession of its versions have proved inefficient in practice. Taking the subject up, I adopted an entirely different approach and method of research. I assumed that all assistance can only be successful if those involved in it are genuinely motivated to that activity. Even if the norm „help the prisoners” is an element of the system of moral directives recognized in our culture, this fact alone by no means determines in advance the actual range and validity of that norm. Like all moral values, also this one is valid with different force, to a different extent and has a different range for different people. For some, it is a postulate that needs to be fulfilled which they experience as a moral obligation; for others, it is a criterion of axiological orientation. This implies the different ways of their functioning. As shown by analysis of empirical studies, the norm demanding that prisoners should be helped is not too deeply rooted in social consciousness. It has failed to win general acceptance even at the verbal level, and the readiness to fulfill it through a person’s own activity can be found but occasionally; in such cases, it is motivated situationally rather than by axi axiological experiences. The reason is probably that a moral appraisal of the object of assistance (an imprisoned offender) is transmitted to the appraisal of the duty to fulfill a norm. Instead of deciding whether help is at all necessary, we want to know if the person in need of help deserves to be helped. In so doing, we forget that all those objectively in need of help are worth being helped; we condition our decision as to rendering help upon the actualreason of a person’s helplessness, or more strictly speaking, upon the rank on the moral scale of the acts that made that person helpless. In this situation, what becomes a signicificent factor that has a beartng on the discussed norm is the perception of un offender as a dewiant of a definite type. An offender is usually perceived through a stereotype: a specific conglomerate of simplified and mainly unfounded beliefs. Yet that very stereotype functions as a standard basing on which the actual way of conduct is chosen. Therefore, I tried to define the stereotype of an impriosoned offender that functions in social consciousness and in consciousness of professionals involved in the work with prisoners. I also tried to diagnose the psychosocial mechanism that result in the formation and consolidation of that stereotype. Which social groups and individuals tend to consider the postulate of assistance to prisoners as a norm that they themselves should follow, or at least which such groups and individuals have the strongest motivation to respond to that call? Of the many hypotheses about the origin of prosocial behaviour (and of course of helping which is a form of that behaviour), let us first consider the one which states that prosocial behaviour results from the structure of ,,ego” and the parallel observation that another person at a disadvantage is similar to oneself in some respect. That similarity may concern both the bodily and spiritual structure and all the other components of one’s self-image. Thus diagnosed, the similarity releases or at least catalyzes the readiness to prosocial behaviour. Basing on this hypothesis, it should be assumed that ex-offenders, ex-convicts, or generally speaking, persons affected by imprisonment are particularly likely to recognize that norm, and further, that the motivation to help prisoners growth with a reduced distance between the offender and the cultural circles that approximate him with respect to mentality and custom. Considering this hypothesis, we come across still another dependence: the actual condemnation of an offender depends on the degree of acceptance of the normative system which that offender has infringed. The discrepancy between values protected by law and the individual or group preferences results in a change in attitudes. A person convicted by force of a disapproved law is perceived as a victim and not an enemy. The offender thus meets with fellow-felling, and the authors and executors of the disapproved law, with resentment. This dependence, cannot be limited to the subcultural negation of law that is characteristic of criminal circles. It follows from the division of the bulk of crime into mala per se and mala prohibita. After all, stigmatization takes a different, course in the case of an obvious evil vs. one that is simply considered evil by law which cites reasons that are by no means necessarily either obvious or good, or which is directed against an interest that is not perceived in accordance with the official standpoint. Prohibitions lacking the proper axiological foundation proliferate with the instrumental treatment of penal law, reduced to the role of political tool; in such situations, all public activity of any importance whatever is usually subordinated to politics. What significantly differentiates the extent to which the norms that concern helping others are perceived as valid are the emotional and social bonds (e.g. fomily ties). From the psychological viewpoint, they constitute a particularly active and natural stimulator of motivations, one that defines the actual circle of the most involve addressees of the norn. In this case, the one who helps is not only personally interested in the fates of the one who gets help, but also acts for his own good rendering that help. The social situation resulting from imprisonment of a family member gives rise to special problems in the legal, economic and social sphere. Quite obviously, the other members of that family should be allowed to participate in the solution of those problems which are also their own. We have therefore distinguished the groups that are willing, as can be expected, to adopt the norm of helping prisoners and to act accordingly. Of course, we deal here with a selective range of that norm’s validity which is subject to a double limitation: not everybody is willing to help prisoners, and that readiness does not concern all prisoners. This follows from the contents of the discussed hypothesis which after all assumes the similarity of partners in interaction as the necessary condition of emergence of motivation. The fact that a person considers a definite behaviour his/her duty may as well result from that person’s internalization of certain moral norms or ideals that can only be fulfilled through such behaviour (the love of one’s fellow man, brotherhood, general kidness). What is released here, as opposed to the hypothesis discussed above, is a general sense of duty not related to any definite person or situation but directed at all those in need of help. The group of thus motivated person includes possible addressees of the norm helping prisoners. With ages, the social practice formed a variety of forms of orginization of those who treat assistance to prisoners as a moral norm. Concerned here are initiatives based initially on the model of charity and constituting part of the general charitable activities. In the l9th century, they developed into specialized patronage societies which in turn acquired, and preserved till the present day in the world, the status of an indispensable element of the rational prison system. The Polish model of society’s participation in the execution of the sentence of imprisonment eliminated all the above-mentioned subjects from any activities whatever on behalf of prisoners. Finding this situation irrational, I tried to investigate its causes and to disclose the motives of those who had made it that way. Depending upon the object that serves as the system of reference for prosocial behaviour, that behaviour can be divided into allocentric and sociocentric. The allocentric behaviour is activity undertaken for reason of another person’s interests, i. e. aimed at securing the best possible functioning, protection, or development of that person. If, instead, the subject acts on behalf of an institutional or group, that is if the addressee of his/her action is a definite social arrangement, we deal with the sociocentric prosocial behaviour. This latter motivation was adopted in Poland as the basis for designing the institutional structures charged with the task of helping prisoners. Namely, after-care was inserted in that particular segment of criminal policy which is called in the legal language ,,participation of the community in crime prevention and control”. The term community used here expresses the principle of joint action. The whole means a specific kind of participation aimed at assisting the police, courts, and prison administration. As opposed to voluntary associations of those interested in helping prisoners and to patronage societies, such institutions are organized from without, follow the orders of State administration, base membership on the principle of delegation or nomination, are organizationally included in the system of State agencies whose activities they supplement within their imposed competences, and are fully controlled by those agencies. Thus organized, the voluntary forces are used to support the machine involved in carrying out penalties; they become advocates of the so-called social interest and executors of the official State policy. The main conclusion that follows from the present study resolves itself into a postulate for a reform which would make it possible also, and perhaps in particular, for those with the allocentric motivation to become engaged in helping prisoners.
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