Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija

The article was inspired by the desire to broaden the knowledge on the existence of adult men just after the loss of freedom – that is, during the transitional period of imprisonment. The research was inspired by the specific nature of the temporary cell and the conviction that for many researchers, this area is almost inaccessible and the research itself difficult to conduct. The aim of the research is an attempt at identifying factors that may be related to the sense of security among inmates in the temporary cells of prisons and detention facilities. I have personally conducted three studies among men in the transitional period of imprisonment, twice in the correctional facility in Pińczów (2013 and 2016) and in 2017 in the Detention facility in Kielce. The randomly selected research sample includes 422 inmates. the author’s own questionnaire for studying the sense of security among inmates in the temporary cell of the correctional facility and detention facility also made it possible to examine their moods and a tendency to present oneself in an excessively favourable manner. In order to verify the research hypotheses, a diagnostic survey method and a method of statistical and comparative analysis were adopted.A factor analysis revealed that the sense of security among inmates in temporary cells is determined by three factors: fear of inmates’ threatening behaviour, fear of inmates and anxiety. It appeared that the first-time inmates in temporary cells demonstrated more Fear of Inmates than the prisoners returning to it. As far as the fear of inmates’ threatening behaviour and anxiety are concerned, there were no significant differences between first-time inmates in the temporary cell and the prisoners returning to it.

In the study presented here, the author attempts to answer questions about the acquisition of information by prison staff that may have a bearing on their safety related to their service and work, the safety of isolated persons, and the general public. Internal regulations of the Prison Service (PS) related to the process of obtaining, processing, collecting and using information are indicated and discussed. Based on the research, the knowledge and action of PS officers in this area was analysed. The article aims to show information as an important factor directly affecting the security of penitentiary units.

This article is devoted to the determinants of preparing and deploying Intervention Groups of the Prison Service. The period of several years in which the Intervention Groups of the Prison Service functioned have highlighted the need to implement solutions that enable their better preparation and more effective use in ensuring public security. In the structures of the Prison Service, the mobile strike groups have existed for a relatively short time, which consequently translates into a low level of experience of the staff that manage them. In practice, it appears that individual Regional Inspectorates of the Prison Service use different ways of managing their subordinate Intervention Groups. It is therefore necessary to introduce changes with regard to the preparation and use of all Intervention Groups of the Prison Service, which will enable their proper functioning and increase their effectiveness.

The aim of the research was to analyse letters written by prisoners so as to discover what the penitentiary space means to them. The practical goal was to show the usefulness of employing epistolography in assessing the quality of social and living conditions and to evaluate the quality of penitentiary practices in the context of prisoners’ needs, as well as to unmask the hidden re-education programme. The article is based on the results of the content analysis of 26 anonymised letters written by prisoners who for the first time serve a sentence in Polish closed regime prisons. The collected research material was subjected to a framework analysis supplemented by an emergent technique. The analysis of prison letters indicates a generally critical assessment of the quality of the practices carried out and their accuracy in relation to the prisoner’s rehabilitation needs. The letters reveal also the existence of a hidden re-education programme. The use of the epistolary corpus in the description of the penitentiary space may result in the improvement of the current penitentiary methods. A thorough analysis of prison letters indicate areas that require change or the application of specific solutions that may contribute to the rationalization of penitentiary practices.

This article is an attempt to deepen the knowledge about the relationships between Machiavellianism and the search for and experience of a sense of the meaning in life in penitentiary recidivists. The study emphasises the role of this knowledge in penitentiary interactions. The significance of Machiavellianism for penitentiary studies is conditioned by the fact that this construct captures the essence of the attitudes and beliefs illustrating the relation of individuals to the social world. Moreover, the significance of the problem of searching for and experiencing the meaning in life in relation to the area of penitentiary social rehabilitation is conditioned by the issue of linking these constructs with the aspect of positive change and achieving general adaptation. The study indicates a number of theoretical and empirical premises justifying the occurrence of direct relationships between the area of Machiavellianism and the sphere of existential experiences. The research objective was formulated based these assumptions and concerned the determination of the relationship between Machiavellianism and the meaning of life in repeatedly incarcerated convicts. A group of 59 penitentiary recidivists (aged 27 to 68; M = 39.75, SD = 8.84) was tested using the Machiavellian scale (Mach IV) and the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ), which enabled the measurement of the search for and presence of meaning in life. The relationships between the variables were determined by correlation. The analyses showed the existence of numerous significant relationships between the Machiavellian syndrome and the search for and presence of meaning in life. A greater overall level of Machiavellianism was associated with a lower intensity of the search for and the presence of meaning in life. The obtained results have implications for penitentiary practice with regards to influencing convicted recidivists. In light of the acquired results, it is justified to include educational and psycho-corrective elements that undermine Machiavellian beliefs, which is a factor supporting the orientation towards the search for meaning in life and has potential to create meaning.

The paper considers the feeling of security among inmates in Polish prisons and detention facilities. The adopted methods include the diagnostic survey method, and statistical and comparative analysis method, including factor analysis. The research conducted in five randomly selected Polish prisons and detention facilities included a sample of 392 inmates. Factors significant for the physical and social prison space were analysed. No correlation was found between the sense of security of persons deprived of their liberty and the time spent in a residential cell and the duration of stay and number of transfers in the prison/detention facility. However, it was noted that with the age increase, the “anxiety” of first-time inmates who did not participate in the subculture of prison cryptolect decreased (N=72, Spearman’s rho correlation = -0.247, p < 0.05) and the “fear of inmates’ threatening behaviour” among the prisoners who served a prison sentence again, and who did not participate in the subculture of prison cryptolect, was reduced (N=262, Spearman’s rho correlation = -0.221, p < 0.01). It was also found that the greater the number of inmates in a residential cell, the lower the “fear of inmates’ threatening behaviour” (N=48, Kendall’s tau-b correlation =-0.293, p < 0.01) among the participants in the subculture of prison cryptolect who serve a prison sentence again.

Victimization is the process of assuming the role of a victim. Even early criminological theories indicated how important an individual’s personality can be in this process. In contemporary theories of the psychopathology, the causes of vulnerability to becoming a victim lie in maladaptive schemas, i.e. dysfunctional patterns of thinking, behaviour and experiencing emotions. Research indicates that, in particular, the area of disconnection / rejection that develops in early childhood in relationships with parents and / or peers promotes susceptibility to victimization. The article describes the cases of three patients who were diagnosed with the indicated patterns in the area of disconnection / rejection, as a result of experiencing direct violence in their childhood. Their examples show how the tendency to become a victim continues in adulthood. It seems important to recognize maladaptive schemas, also in the context of the victimization process. Proper work with the victims of crime can be the basis for environmental change, which will be important both for avoiding victimisation in the future, but also for stabilizing the negative behaviour of the perpetrators themselves.

This article presents the rights of Prison Service officers regarding the preventive use of direct coercive measures. The concepts of the use and application of direct coercive measures were defined in relation to the Prison Service. The purposes of preventive use are presented with examples. The catalogue and basic principles of the use of direct coercive measures, which can be applied as preventive measures in the Polish Prison Service, are described. The above issues were adapted to the statutory protective tasks of this formation.

The aim of the paper is an attempt to show that the Thomistic theory of person and the original idea of personal relations built on it become the basis for decisions in the field of pedagogy in the view of consistent Thomism. Mieczysław Gogacz, the founder of this version of Thomism, treating pedagogy as a philosophical science, points to the necessary dependence of upbringing and education on theses resulting from human philosophy, ethics and social security. A properly formulated theory of person is the basis for pedagogy in the current of realist philosophy. This version of Thomism continually emphasises the close dependence of all subsequent assertions on the recognition of existence as an act of individual being which is the basis of all further actualities and manifestations of being. In the case of the human being, the personal act of existence and its manifestations subject the personal relations that result from the coherence of the approaches to metaphysics, philosophy of man and, consequently, ethics. In consistent Thomism, it is the concept of the person and personal relations that define pedagogy.

This paper presents key findings from an ‘immersion’ that was undertaken in August 2017 on Paquetá and surrounding islands within the Amazon region of Brazil. In this research, immersion is understood as active participation in peoples’ lives over a period of time and supported by other methods including observation, semi-structured interviews and co-mapping. This research adapted the urban metabolism concept commonly used to assess levels of sustainability and resilience, for application to the context of peripheral river islands located in the Tocantins river near the Brazilian city of Belém. It specifically focuses on factors that impact on people’s behaviour in relation to water management, or what is described here as the ‘island water metabolism’. This includes geographic, seasonal, local governance and social dimensions as well as dependence on the rising and falling tides of the river.