Slovenia's penal system emphasises resocialization role of prisons

Incarceration in today's society, both in Slovenia and globally, is the most severe form of formal punishment. The idea behind it is that the convicted person is removed from their social environment and isolated in an institution, Darja Tadič from the Faculty of Education in Ljubljana told the STA.

By doing so society is only temporarily safe and this is not a long-term solution as the person will be re-integrated sooner or later. That is why it is important to prepare offenders to re-integrate back into society successfully.

To this end, most modern prison systems similar to Slovenia's and its neighbouring countries' operate under the principles of rehabilitation, which supports the resocialization of inmates not only by including professions such as judicial police officers, who ensure security, order and discipline in secure facilities, but also by the various helping professions including psychologists, social workers, educators, medical staff and others who provide psychosocial support to prisoners, Tadič said.

Helping professions play indispensable but demanding role

Helping professions play an indispensable but demanding role in the penal system, said the head of the Rehabilitation Department at Ig Prison, Vesna Kopač.

"When talking about incarcerated individuals we have to take into account that something went astray in their primary socialisation during childhood and correcting it later when a person is imprisoned is extremely difficult. It is hard for people in general to change behaviour and even much harder for inmates," she said.

The primary role of the rehabilitation department at the women's prison in Ig near Ljubljana, where 77 women are currently serving a prison sentence, is to identify the inmates' needs and conduct a risk assessment.

"The most common problems are different types of addiction, such as to drugs or alcohol, underlying traumas from childhood, adolescence and adulthood or medical conditions." Only by knowing an individual well can helping professionals devise a suitable rehabilitation programme for them, Kopač explained.

"The rehabilitation department employs various professionals, from psychologists and social workers, to nurses and counsellors who are trained to offer guidance regarding education, employment and leisure activities. Each one of them has their own area of expertise and works with the prisoners, supporting and motivating them to do different activities. Above all, it is important to give prisoners work to do so that they become disciplined and develop work habits."

Each prisoner's individual plan of serving their sentence at Ig Prison is tailor-made to their needs and risk assessment.

"This is the only way we can be effective because we are well-aware each person requires something different," she said, adding that recently they have had to deal with increasingly demanding personality structures and severe psychiatric diagnoses. Some of the inmates have intellectual disabilities and Kopač said that for them prison is not a suitable environment as it does not meet their actual needs.

People with intellectual disabilities need constant engagement, have a harder time accepting their prison sentence and find co-habitation with other prisoners challenging. Moreover, Ig prison is housing an increasing number of foreigners, with whom effective communication is the main issue.

Close cooperation between helping and control professionals is key to a successful and comprehensive rehabilitation and prison officers play a major role in achieving this, Tadič agrees. Their main role is to work as a team in steering inmates away from further criminal acts, which can be a tough task, one that is unlikely to be fully feasible.

"Balancing both the rehabilitative and the control roles is a major challenge. When the control role is highlighted, we can quickly come into conflict with what the prisoners' needs are. On the other hand, emphasising the needs of the person in prison can contradict the idea that prison is after all a strongly controlled environment," she said.

"Control is certainly a must because imprisoned people can also pose security risks. That is why there is not a single answer to whether to focus more on helping inmates or controlling them so the Ig Prison combines both as best as it can under the circumstances," Kopač said.

Kristina Sečnik, the head of the security department at Ig Prison, also believes that security concerns and the resocialization of detainees are closely linked.

The prison officers' duty is not only repressive in the sense of monitoring and taking action when violations occur, but is also complemented by their involvement in the professional treatment of prisoners, especially by communicating forward certain observations.

"Prison officers actually have a vital role in this as we are in close contact with inmates basically 24 hour per day and control them constantly, even when they are not aware of it. That is also when they act more naturally, without putting on an act or a facade, which they can do when they are interviewed by other prison staff," Sečnik said.

She believes it is this flow of information between the prison's departments and experts that that helps them to form as realistic an opinion as possible of a particular detainee and determine the appropriate method of serving the sentence, and the the benefits and the activities that they deem necessary for the inmate's resocialization but at the same time do not pose a security risk.

Sečnik said that the prerequisite for resocialisation to yield positive results are respectful and polite relations between prisoners and prison staff, with which prison officers can be of great help as they are the ones who communicate with prisoners most often.

"Constant interaction with inmates and, consequently, knowing them well means that we are capable of providing them with appropriate support when needed while also being able to take timely action if we notice any problems," she explained.

Final decision up to prisoners

Even though helping and control professionals do their best to prepare prisoners for their re-integration into society, it is ultimately up to inmates to what extent they are willing to change.

Andreja Skarza Robida, 42, who has been serving a prison sentence at Ig for the past year and a half, says the individual plan offers her enough activities and support but she is well-aware that the key is for her to strive for personal development.

"If you want to work on yourself, you can benefit enormously from the individual plan. I think I get enough support and a lot of opportunities for personal growth in prison. We have speech therapy, support groups, individual talks, including with prison officers and the prison administration.

"Our daily schedule is filled with various activities practically from seven o'clock in the morning until ten o'clock in the evening," Skarza Robida, who also works as a housekeeper at the prison, explained. She is serving time at the prison's open ward, which means she is allowed to leave occasionally.

She feels reintegration into society can be a major challenge, especially is one has been in prison for a long time.

"In prison you are still isolated, you are in a safe environment with a set schedule and you get very used to that. I also find that outside prison, when I leave, it can be hard for me to reintegrate into social life. But I can imagine that the more time you spend in prison, the harder it is," she said.

This is why, as Kopač stresses, the transition from prison to freedom must be gradual. "It is necessary to prepare them as well as possible for their return to society by gradually involving them in various activities, including outside of prison," she said.