Adaptation to prison isolation of long-term prisoners in Poland

Abstract

Objectives The main aim of the research was to find out the ways of adaptation to prison isolation of Polish long-term prisoners. Material and methods The study was conducted in two stages. First, the prison files of 15 convicted prisoners who had been in isolation for a minimum of 20 years (this was the only sampling criterion) were analyzed. Then in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with them. Results Adaptation to prison isolation in the case of long-term prisoners is an extremely individual matter and it is very difficult to generalise here. The time served is not the determining variable here. Conclusions Polish long-term prisoners experience similar problems as inmates in the USA, Canada or Western Europe (lack of ideas from the Prison Service what to do with them, postponing their cases to indefinite "later" or prisoners becoming too familiar with prison conditions, resulting in fear of leaving prison after serving their sentences).

Keywords

• social rehabilitation
• long-term prisoner
• prisonization
• coping with imprisonment
• prison adaptation
• escape from freedom