The Role of Prisons in the Re-Education and Resocialization of Prisoners

Abstract

During the serving of a prison sentence, the way of life and organization of daily activities of prisoners are strictly defined by laws and bylaws, all with the aim of achieving the purpose of executing criminal sanctions.This primarily implies the implementation of final, executive court decisions and the separation of perpetrators of crimes and misdemeanors from the social environment in order to re-educate, treat and train them to live in freedom in accordance with socially acceptable norms. Institutions for the execution of criminal sanctions are those that, through various forms of work and procedures, conduct institutional re-education and the process of re-socialization of prisoners. But in addition to the formal legal system that the state prescribes in order to regulate the position of prisoners, re-education is also influenced by the informal system. Prisoners build an informal system through their behavior in mutual relations conditioned by deprivation of freedom of movement and stay in a limited space. The paper will deal with normative elements of organization and functioning of penitentiary institutions, factors influencing the success of resocialization, specifics of re-education, position of prisoners in prisons, as well as the impact of classification of prisoners on the success of re-socialization and re-education despite the lack of post-penal treatment.