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Copyright of Bulletin of the L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University. Law Series is the property of L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Polish Journal of Social Rehabilitation / Resocjalizacja Polska is the property of Pedagogium Foundation and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There are many thousands of people in Polish penitentiary institutions who, for a certain reason, went behind a high wall. The vast majority of them are males who shape their everyday life day by day, giving it a certain rhythm. Meanwhile, prison areas can be seen in shades of gray or black. They are only perfunctory observations and illusions of an observer from the outside, since predominantly the unofficial sphere often acquires various colors of lives of both individual inmates and specific groups of co-inmates. This applies with a greater intensity to the phenomenon of the prison subculture, which, despite visible and inevitable changes, continues to gather its supporters around specific styles of behavior and holistic functioning in a situation of imprisonment. Being a male in an isolated environment has its own profile and is often located in the lens of the "second life". Outlining the composition and nature of prison or prison masculinity is an interesting challenge and remains in the sphere of future research explorations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: we study the negative impact of the prison subculture on the personality of a correctional officer. Amid the social crisis caused by the collapse of the USSR the prison subculture started to penetrate into popular culture. This was reflected in the widespread use of prison slang, increased interest in the way of “thieves’ life”, and the popularization and romanticization of crime bosses. Behind all this was the devaluation of the norms of law and the state, and the distortion of the status of the penal system officer. Aim: on the basis of generalization of modern experience in studying the impact of the prison subculture, we describe main directions aimed at preventing the destructive impact of the prison subculture on the personality of young correctional staff. The article deals with the issue of modern dissemination of the prison subculture among young people via the mass media, the Internet and oral transmission of information. Methods: we use empirical data collection methods (questionnaires, conversations, interviews), and methods of statistical analysis and system analysis of the data collected. Results: the findings of our research show that the prison subculture infects not only disadvantaged teenagers, but also young people from a socially favorable environment, who then enter departmental universities and serve in correctional institutions. Infection is assessed by the degree of internal involvement of a young person in the prison subculture. In the lightest form of this infection, they simply are well informed about what it is, know the meaning of prison slang expressions, understand the logic of the functioning of groups of inmates, and are favorably disposed toward these phenomena. When the infection is more complex, future and young correctional officers not only demonstrate awareness and tolerance, but also consider the prison subculture necessary and useful; they do not condemn colleagues who use it in solving official tasks and are themselves ready, if necessary, to act in this way. Discussion: general awareness of the specifics of the prison subculture is necessary for the penal system officer, but it should remain a professional knowledge that helps to assess social relations in the group and the operational situation in the correctional institution adequately. At the same time, the prison subculture should receive an objective assessment as an anti-humanistic and anti-legal phenomenon. Therefore, there is a need for systematic and targeted work to prevent the spread and deforming effects of the prison subculture among cadets of departmental universities and young correctional officers.

I analyze institutions of prison subculture that mitigate potential violent confrontations among inmates, in contrast to Hobbesian-Zimbardo default spontaneous violence. The games that are relatively rarely played in prison are Chicken and other violent confrontation games. Incoming rookie inmates are subject to initiation tests that allocate them into different subcultural groups, which signals their toughness and disincentivizes fighting. Most experienced inmates develop the eristic skills utilizing prison argot, use informal conflict adjudicators, and fake aggression toward rookies. All inmates form defensive coalitions. Finally, when inmates commit self-injuries, they follow well-rehearsed protocols to minimize the damage to their bodies and to maximize the impression made on the authorities. The secret knowledge of the associated rules, tricks, and cons is passed down over generations of prisoners through informal schooling. The material for this study comes from two Polish prisons, where the author spent 5 months as a political prisoner in 1985. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to statistics published by the Prison Service, as of 31 December 2021 there were almost 72 thousand people in prisons and custodies in Poland. In penitentiary units we are dealing with a collective of different people, forcibly confined in small spaces, individuals with different characters, different attitudes, value systems, priorities, situations and life experiences. The situation of detainees is therefore difficult and requires special adaptation. The aim of the research was to determine whether there is a relationship between personality traits and aggression and to determine whether prisoners belonging and not belonging to the prison subculture differ in terms of personality traits and aggression intensity. The research sample consisted of 90 inmates. The analysis of the results showed that there were correlations of individual personality traits with general aggression, physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility, and that inmates belonging to the prison subculture and not belonging to the prison subculture differed in all Big Five personality traits and in the intensity of aggression - except hostility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the issues of psychological work with convicts who are malicious violators of the sentence serving regime. It is emphasized that this group of persons presents a particular problem for the correction process given it counteracts the normal functioning of the correctional institution. Based on the analysis of interview data (20 convicted men in a detachment with strict conditions for serving sentences, 15 employees whose activities are directly related to convicts of this category), the major categories of convicts serving sentences in strict conditions are identified. The assumption was confirmed that the majority of persistent violators are ideological follower of the prison subculture, but at the same time they seek to justify their behavior with adverse life circumstances. The measures necessary for working with this group of convicts are discussed, with the aim of activation of the law-abiding attitude.

Based on interviews with 30 female parolees/ex-inmates and 10 prison officers, this article argues that custody relationships among women incarcerated in China are "not easy," and this is due primarily to distrust in prison society and a hierarchical prison culture. Even so, women inmates are motivated to form and maintain harmonious relationships with others. This article suggests that this behavior pattern is greatly influenced by the Chinese culture of pragmatic Confucianism, which further explains the women's low interest in forming a prison subculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Szkoła Specjalna is the property of Akademia Pedagogiki Specjalnej im Marii Grzegorzewskiej and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Decyzje is the property of Decyzje and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study examines the ways in which the prison service handles food and analyses the uses and meanings of food in prison subculture. Using semi-structured interviews and content analysis, data were collected and analysed from 20 ex-prisoners who were incarcerated in maximum-security prison facilities for a period of three years or more. Our main findings are that, according to the interviewees' testimonies, (a) the Israel Prison Service (IPS) makes manipulative and abusive use of food in order to perpetuate its power; and (b) food serves as a means to determine the relationship between prisoners and staff, govern social status or rejection in the prison subculture, or pass the time. We have four main conclusions. First, the IPS nutrition policy differentiates and discriminates among prisoners and clearly violates the basic human rights of prisoners, thus suggesting an abuse of power. Second, the IPS's use of food as a tool for punishing or rewarding introduces and perpetuates inequalities and encourages the illegal prison trade in food and food products. Third, cooking in prison, especially in light of its illegality, constitutes a symbolic expression of resistance to the institution and a meaningful way of coping with boredom. Lastly, food and its possession in prison serve as very powerful tools for constructing and perpetuating exploitation and unequal power relations among prisoners.Although the study suffers from two limitations – the validity of the adolescents' responses and the small sample size – its findings lead us to propose that an improvement in the food products that are accessible to prisoners and permission to cook in their cells are inexpensive and legitimate means of bettering both the prisoners' quality of life and the social atmosphere in prison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of inmate-on-staff violence in Romanian prisons is important for both scientific and more practical reasons. For scientists, Romanian prisons and their dynamics offer an interesting case study because even though many improvements and reforms have been made to the legislation and the institutional regulations after the fall of the communist political regime in 1990, the infrastructure of some of the prison units, as well as parts of the staff's mentalities and attitudes towards how things should be done reflect an era from long ago. As such, the Romanian prison system is still in transition, and matters of order, power and control are still under debate. Inevitably, these reverberate into the day-to-day prison life and many times come out in the form of violence, be it verbal, physical or a combination of the two. At practical level, knowing the dynamics of inmate-on-staff violence can help the prison administration devise strategies to prevent it or to diminish its consequences. For the purpose of this paper we look at two independent datasets: the first includes quantitative data on 131 inmate-on-staff violent incidents perpetrated by 109 inmates and recorded in the period 2013-2014 in 39 prison units from all parts of Romania; the second includes qualitative data from 11 face-to-face individual interviews with male adult inmates conducted in 2010 in Jilava prison, in the South of Romania. The first dataset explores general dynamics of inmate-on-staff prison violence, while the second explores how inmates adjust to life in prison in the context of the prisonisation processes, and is added into the analysis to offer readers an interpretivist lens on how violence in prison is perceived by inmates. Even though the study has not offered a predictability model for this type of violence, it depicts an image of who the perpetrators are and when, why and how violent acts against prison staff occur, which in turn can be used to build preventative strategies at the level of the prison units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article concerns the phenomenon of prison tattoos. It can be recognized that the modern tattoo outside of prison in Poland is going through its “boom”, which was started in 1989, and since the new millennium has begun to be treated as art at the highest artistic level. As a result of this, also prison tattoo has begun to evolve. According to the concept of transmission, prisoners transfer all patterns from freedom to the prison environment and there they adapt them to the prevailing conditions. Therefore, the broached issues oscillate around both the traditional symbolism of prison tattoos, and their modern aspect. The article also describes the history and importance of the prison tattoo artist, whose position – due to interest among prisoners in the aesthetic tattoo – has increased significantly.

This theoretical study presents conceptual views on the psychological mechanisms through which the regime, the social-educational work and the prison subculture influence on the mental functioning of prisoners. The penitentiary institution provides constructive and destructive transformations of the conscious layers into unconscious ones, as well as the reverse process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As in other post-Soviet countries, carceral collectivism characterizes penal institutions in Lithuania. In these institutions, prisoners’ interactions are minimally controlled and convicts are responsible for the maintenance of order; hence, the informal rules of the criminal subculture prevail in Lithuanian correctional facilities. In this article, we examine the prison subculture and adaptation to imprisonment as a significant part of inmates’ social world in post-Soviet Lithuania. By using semi-structured interviews with male prisoners, semi-structured interviews with prison staff, and data from the inmates’ criminal records, we conceptualize both men’s adaptation to imprisonment and current transformations in the Lithuanian prison subculture. As our research shows, the importance of this subculture has decreased in recent years. This process has been influenced by structural changes such as stronger administrative control of convicts, their differentiation and division into smaller groups that limit their mutual contacts, and convicts’ motivation to obtain parole and participate in various rehabilitation programs. The prison subculture has also experienced transformations because of the increasing impact of financial resources on social life, subcultural rules, and interprisoner relationships. Despite these processes, the subculture still plays an important role in inmates’ attempts to choose different daily coping styles and types of adaptation to imprisonment. In this article, we argue that in reforming post-Soviet correctional institutions, a gradual transition to the system of individual cell–type confinement with some remaining elements of collective imprisonment would be desirable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the prison subculture as a side and destructive phenomenon, which has been observed in our domestic penal institutions for years. Given the background of the traditional categorization of prisoners (“elite”, “non-elite”, “victims”), the article presents the image of prisoners called “dodgers” who – as there are not many of them – exist on the edge of a subculture world, making attempts to become a part of the present and significantly modified in recent years subculture structures, which are based mainly on financial relationships.

This article presents a look at the resocialization, as a cultural offer, which were presented for imprisoned persons. Perceiving the phenomenon of the prison subculture, as a threat to the future readaptation, a program with using elements of drama was suggested and presented whether and what scope he can contribute to the increase in the level of empathy in.

The paper aims to study the similarities and differences between small or informal groups in prison subculture and re-socialization program “Miriam”, which is created as a different cultural space in female prison. The dominating norms in the small groups in prison subculture the values, artefact, leader, table culture, and a sense of space and time strengthens the convicted person's criminal identity. Under the program “Miriam”, which also has elements of prisoner small group subculture, women are offered to learn about different cultural and artistic values together with fundamental Christianity values by program leaders – well-known people from Art and Culture area. With this kind of approach different cultural space is created in prison opposite to the prisoner subculture. And this creates favourable conditions for transformation of the convicted person's point of view.

Different degrees of criminalization of illegal drug use influence the overall composition of prison populations across countries. Individuals convicted of illegal drug-related crimes represent a significant part of the prison population in Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine. These convicts are not a part of the traditional criminal milieu, but a product of the perception of certain acts as crimes in particular contexts (e.g., an increasing social distance, the state's control over potentially dangerous groups, etc.). The experience of incarceration might cause important changes in their life after release. The idea that prison contributes to the interiorization of criminal norms rather than preventing deviant behavior in the future seems especially fruitful in regard to illegal drug users. Elements of prison subculture are described on the basis of an empirical research conducted in 1996-2003 in Russian prisons (N= 769 (49 of these were convicted in relation to illegal drugs) in 2000-2001; and N= 214 (24) in 2003). The social organization of everyday life of inmates convicted of drug-related offences in Russia, Kazakhstan (N=396 (76) in 2001) and Ukraine (N= 208(26) in 2003) is compared with that of other convicts to test the hypothesis about the lack of significant differences between the two groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim of the Study: To present the most popular types of tattoos, their meaning and classification, and to assess the suitability of different forms of tattoos in the process of identification of corpses of unknown identity., Material and Methods: The tattoos found on 729 cadavers who underwent post mortem examinations at the Department of Forensic Medicine in Warsaw in the years 2012-2015 were analyzed. The tattoos were photographed and identified in terms of their meaning domain and classified into groups., Results: Tattoos belonging to all groups were found, according to the most popular tattoo classification, which is based on their nature and includes: criminal and prison tattoos (defining the prison hierarchy, criminal profession as well as intentions and goals, erotic tattoos, environmental, penitentiary), military and artistic. The novel classification, focusing on the utility of certain kinds of tattoos for identyfying corpses of unknown identity, was also developed. According to the above mentioned classification the following kinds of tattoos are distinguished: individual (artistic), group (e.g. penitentiary - indicating the fact of being imprisoned in a penitentiary institution or belonging to a "prison kites" subculture, or presenting criminal profession; group confined tattoo (indicating a staying in a specific penitentiary institution), group tattoo with individual data (indicating the fact of staying in a penitentiary institution as well as dates of imprisonment), and others (e.g. names of relatives, military tattoo, etc.)., Conclusions: Analysis of individual types of tattoo can accelerate the process of identification of the cadavers. The proposed classification allows to quickly determine whether a particular tattoo can be helpful in initial individual identification (in the case of individual tattoos) or whether it can be used to reduce the group of people considered (in cases of different types of group tattoos).