Social climate in correctional institutions and the Juvenile Detention Centre Radece in 2010 Social climate in correctional institutions and the Juvenile Detention Centre Radece in 2010 Social climate in correctional institutions and the Juvenile Detenti

Abstract

In 2010, the Institute of Criminology at the Faculty of Law conducted the sixth consecutive measurement of social climate in correctional institutions and the Juvenile Detention Centre Radece (1980, 1985, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010). The purpose of the research was to establish how inmates, juvenile delinquents and correctional workers in closed, semi-open and open prison facilities perceive the social climate in these facilities. In 2010, the social climate was measured for the first time in all 13 correctional institutions of the Republic of Slovenia in which inmates serve prison sentences and in the Juvenile Detention Centre in Radece, in which juveniles sentenced to the educational measure of committal to a juvenile detention centre are placed.

Measurement of the social climate was conducted on the basis of the Moos questionnaire CIES, Form C, which had already been used in the previous measurements. Questionnaires were completed by 679 prison inmates and juveniles and (92.13 percent of the sample) and 528 correctional workers (95.65 percent of the sample). Statistical data processing was carried out with the program PASW - STATISTICS 18.

The research results indicate that inmates and workers at open facilities experience a more favourable climate than their counterparts in semi-open and closed facilities. Inmates gave low scores to the elements relating to the rehabilitative orientation of institutions (openness of expression, solving personal problems, autonomy and assistance) and high scores to the element of supervision, which means that they perceived institutions as mainly control-oriented institutions without any rehabilitative efforts. The correctional personnel of closed, semi-open and open prison facilities are similarly mainly oriented towards keeping order and supervising inmates and juveniles. In the opinion of correctional personnel, inmates and juveniles, the social climate in all correctional institutions deteriorated during the period 2005 - 2010, the rehabilitation orientation of institutions declined, while efforts at maintaining order and supervising inmates increased. These findings indicate that the supervision of inmates for security reasons has become the primary consideration in the enforcement of prison sentences and the application of the measure of committal to a juvenile detention centre. The rehabilitative orientation is impeded by strong supervision, low autonomy, low level of solving personal problems and low openness of expression. This situation requires the additional professional training of correctional workers for work with problematic and dangerous inmates and juveniles, aimed at modifying the attitudes of correctional workers and increasing their motivation for work. Training workers must be connected with systematic modification of the prison regime, as well as the structure and organisation of closed, semi-open and open prisons facilities, and adjusted to long-term sentencing and correctional policy. Particular attention should be paid to the criteria for assigning inmates to appropriate facilities and to their transfer. For this purpose, it is necessary to use theoretical penological knowledge, because it is inadmissible to formulate these criteria predominantly or exclusively on the basis of presumptions and the pursuit of practical aims.