Treatment, Re-integration and Quality of Prison Life: Perceptions of Inmates

• In Event: Public Health, Treatment, and Prisoner Reentry

Abstract

Scholarly literature in Europe has repeatedly proclaimed the crisis of the penalty of imprisonment. Spain is not an exception. Yet lawmakers seem to be convinced of its usefulness, since they keep putting most of the weight of penal policies on this punitive mechanism, as a means to achieve assurance and prevention in both its general and special versions. A clear example of this can be found in the recent reforms of the Spanish Penal Code, which have not only kept imprisonment as the criminal penalty par excellence but they have even reinforced its privileged position as the main penal response.
The main objective of this research is to inquire into the validity of the hypothesis on which prison sentences are still formally based in Spain, according to Spanish Constitution: re-education and social reintegration.
For this purpose, we have analyzed the current state of prison ‘morals’ (LIEBLING) in five penitentiary facilities located in the south of Spain through a representative sample of prisoners. They have answered a questionnaire including questions connected with the following three issues: their relationship with prison staff; their relationship with other inmates; the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of prison treatment in terms of their reintegration into society.

Authors

• Jesús Barquín Sanz, University of Granada (Spain)

• Miguel Ángel Cano Paños, Andalusian Interuniversity Institute of Criminology (University of Granada)

• María Ángeles Calvo Alba, University of Granada (Spain)