„Education is a treasure”
Petronius
Education is a treasure
Educational system for prisoners seems to be a much neglected sphere of social life, even though it is important in preparing prisoners to be righteous citizens after serving their time. General and vocational education of prisoners may contribute not only to judicial improvement, but also to protect them from returning on a crime path. Moreover, social rehabilitation through education not only has a positive impact on direct beneficiaries, but also plays a key role in building a healthy community. However, society by definition has a negative attitude towards the prison sector and towards prisoners themselves. The stereotypical perception of each prisoner through the prism of those who commit the most serious crimes causes social opinion to attribute the same, worst, features to all convicts and does not distinguish between those who should be given a chance from those who should actually be isolated. Negative social perception is also significantly influenced by, among others, mass media. The issue of educating convicts is clearly underestimated in the society. Nevertheless, we all should be aware that education is a treasure, no matter on what level it is, no matter who or at what stage of life is taking it up. This should also be clear when talking about prison education. After all, sooner or later, majority of prisoners will leave prison walls and it is in the best interest of the society that ex-prisoners are prepared to live among us in the best possible way. Let’s have a look at the Polish prison education system.
Polish prison system
Polish prison system is subordinated to the Ministry of Justice, on behalf of which supervision over penal units is provided by the Central Board of the Prison Service (whose headquarters is in Warsaw, the capital city of Poland). This is the body that controls all activities within the prison system.
As in every civilized country, the government is obliged to isolate those who commit crimes from the rest of the society. Therefore, depending on the fact who committed the crime, they can be put into the following types of prisons (letters correspond to Polish words that stand for the first letter of each category) for:
- adolescents (M),
- serving sentence for the first time (P),
- penitentiary recidivists (R),
- serving a sentence in a military arrest (W) (this type of penal unit is very seldom in use).
The above categorization is regulated in the Executive Penal Code. Moreover, each of these penitentiary units may function as:
- closed type prison (1),
- semi-open (2),
- open (3).
Due to this division, prisoners are also categorized and, depending on the unit in which they are serving their time, they receive a specific classification subgroup. For example, John Smith who has the R-2 subgroup, is a penitentiary recidivist and is serving his prison sentence in a semi-open prison, and Tom Brown who has the P-3 subgroup, is serving a sentence for the first time and is staying in an open prison. Additionally, each convict may serve their sentence in a specific penalty execution system:
- ordinary (z), when not agreed to be included in the Individual Impact Program (IIP),
- programmed (p), when the convict undergoes IIP,
- therapeutic (t), when the convict is to undergo therapy while serving a prison sentence, e.g. anti-alcohol therapy, anti-drug therapy, etc.
Therefore, sample full abbreviations describing a convict’s subgroup may be described as follows: R-1/p, M-2/z, P-3/t, etc.
The purpose of isolating prisoners from the rest of the society is primarily to ensure the safety of the society, but at the same time to force the convict to work on himself/herself in order to develop appropriate habits and behaviors that will prevent such a person from returning to prison. In other words, working with people deprived of liberty – social rehabilitation – is about enabling such socially maladjusted individuals to function more correctly than before in commonly accepted life roles.
Prison schools in Poland
There are currently 18 prison schools in Poland (including only one for women). Unfortunately, compared to Western Europe, these number looks very poorly. Nevertheless, in our country, convicts have access to education at almost all levels. Of course, for various reasons, not every person deprived of liberty has the opportunity to attend classes at a prison school, however, by principle, everyone has a guaranteed constitutional right to education. It is worth adding that education is not obligatory and whether the inmate decides to study at school or not depends only on their good will and willingness.
Compared to other countries, these numbers present a poor picture of prison education in Poland. In each type of school in the 2020/2021 school year, 4,913 convicts were being educated. A year later – 5,053 (see table below). According to the same statistics, on 31 December 2022, there were 71,228 people in all penitentiary units. It is easy to calculate that approximately 7% of the prison population uses the benefits of schools behind bars.
*Explanation: wyszczególnienie = content
liczba w roku szkolnym = number in a school year
ogółem = generally
szkoły podstawowe = primary schools
gimnazja = junior high schools (do not exist anymore)
zasadnicze szkoły zawodowe = vocational schools (do not exist anymore)
technika zawodowe = technical schools (do not exist anymore)
szkoły policealne = post-secondary schools
licea ogólnokształcące = grammar schools
szkoły wyższe = higher schools
kwalifikacyjne kursy zawodowe = vocational courses
Let us remember, however, that education is not only about learning at school. Education also includes cultural and educational activities and all extracurricular and informal forms, e.g. sports activities, course teaching, artistic activities, participation in projects (mainly EU projects), access to the library, etc.
Prisoners in Polish penal system
The number of prisoners obviously fluctuates but if we look at the official data from the Central Prison Board, we find out that on 31 August 2023 there were 76,798 prisoners, out of which 3,868 were women. 8,557 were people on remand, still waiting for their sentence to be rendered. What is worth mentioning here, is the fact, that Polish prison system does not have a problem with overpopulation. At the moment of writing this article, official data says that population density in the country is at the level of about 92%. This may change, however. If the European Union forces the law saying that each prisoner has the right to have a minimum of 4 m2 available area in a prison cell, the situation will change drastically. As of now, each prisoner has 3 m2 available area. One must add here, that right now several new penal units are being built across the country. This should have a positive impact on the situation.
*Explanation: wyszczególnienie = content
stan w dniu = numbers on the day
przyrost = change
% w dniu = % on the day
ogółem = generally
w tym kobiety = women
tymczasowo aresztowani = on remand
skazani = convicted
ukarani = punished
Prisoners come from various environments and backgrounds, thus they have a very wide spectrum of qualifications. There is no particular, official data showing what qualifications prisoners in Polish prison system have. However, what is very important, prison education system does not have a problem with illiteracy among inmates. Illiteracy in the discussed group is not the main problem. A major obstacle is functional illiteracy and a relatively low level of soft skills. There are no known studies conducted in this area, so it is difficult to cite specific statistical data. In my opinion, however, this is where support and assistance should be sought for convicts.
Educational opportunities for inmates in Poland
Prisoners in Polish penitentiary units have at their disposal an educational offer that allows them to fill knowledge gaps caused by negligence before the period of penitentiary isolation, as well as to acquire new knowledge and professional qualifications. There are dozens of opportunities to improve competences and acquire qualifications and they exist on two levels – formal and informal. Formal education involves the opportunity to attend a prison school. We already know that currently, there are 18 Continuing Education Centers (CKU) in Poland, within which convicts can acquire knowledge and skills in the field of general education (primary school and general secondary school – grammar schools) and vocational education (vocational qualification courses). Continuing Education Centers provide teaching within post-secondary schools, too. Speaking about vocational qualification courses,
here are some selected professions in which prisoners can improve their qualifications: a confectioner, an electrician, a hairdresser, an IT specialist, a tailor, a cook, a fitter and finishing works in construction, a bricklayer-plasterer, a baker, a locksmith and many others. In total, there are currently 18 different vocational qualifications available. Completing any vocational qualification course and passing an exam confirming qualifications in a given profession gives one an opportunity to obtain a diploma that is recognized in the European Union. It is worth emphasizing that education is organized in professions that create opportunities for employment after leaving prison.
When it comes to the possibilities of informal education, an interesting form are projects financed from external funds, one of them called Improving professional qualifications of prisoners in order to return them to the labor market after serving a prison sentence was implemented under the Operational Program Knowledge, Education and Development 2014–2020. Activities in this area were implemented in many penitentiary units across Poland. When implementing this project, the principals planned to conduct approximately 4,000 training cycles for approximately 45,000 convicts. The project consisted of conducting short (several or several weeks) vocational courses aimed at equipping convicts with appropriate professional qualifications (knowledge and skills needed to perform a specific profession), which were intended to better prepare them to find appropriate jobs after serving a sentence, and as a result, contribute to reducing the percentage of penitentiary recidivism.
Prison education validation
Formal education for adults undergoes certain regulations that are exactly same as in any school in Poland – both behind the bars and outside prison environment. That means that any school (that includes prison schools) has to follow national curricula. And these curricula define the number of learning/teaching hours that students have to have in order to make educational process a valid one. In case of general education (grammar schools) students have 18 classes per week. In case of vocational courses, this number changes depending on the vocation taught. However, this may be anything between 12 and 24 classes per week including both theoretical and practical classes.
As far as Continuing Education Centers are concerned, the effectiveness of support can be considered by the results of passing external examinations. Every year, the Penitentiary Bureau of the Central Prison Board prepares an analysis based on data collected from schools, in which the above-mentioned data can be found. This is an internal document, not available to the public. For the past school year the data shows that the pass rate in all Continuing Education Centers in prisons in Poland was 54.11%. Out of 85 students taking the Matura exam (this is an exam at the end of the grammar school educational cycle), 46 passed the exam.
The pass rate for the exam confirming vocational qualifications (all professions were taken into account) was 72.39%. Out of 547 candidates, 396 successfully passed the exam, meaning they obtained confirmation of qualifications in a given profession.
The data clearly shows that convicts are doing quite well in the professional field, but they have major problems with general education. Therefore, it can be argued that this problem concerns a larger group of convicts. The above-mentioned exam results concern only a small percentage of all prisoners in Poland who made the effort and reached the end of high school education and decided to take their final exams.
Unfortunately for those who successfully pass their exams, system does not have any perks or benefits, claiming that education is the benefit itself. So, basically, prisoners take up education mainly for themselves without being able to be awarded for their efforts. Maybe this is one of the reasons why so few inmates actually take final exams and even fewer get a formal certification at the end of their educational adventure. Bearing in mind the number of approximately 76,000 inmates in Polish prison system, and approximately 630 taking final exams, that makes far less than 1% of the whole prison population whose educational efforts may officially be validated.
To the knowledge of the author, the effectiveness of existing forms of support has not been measured or researched in any way. It is therefore difficult to talk about the effectiveness of such activities because there is no point of reference. The only form of measurement known of, conducted by the Prison Service are indicators of the participation of convicts in various forms of social rehabilitation and/or educational activities. These are only quantitative indicators and do not show how effective they are. Participation in formal educational forms have been presented above in one of the tables.
Teachers in Polish prison schools
When it comes to prison education, all teachers are employed by the Ministry of Justice (though we need to follow regulations of the Ministry of Eduction if it comes to the educational process itself). The Ministry of Justice has 219 teaching full-time posts, which are each time distributed among 18 Continuing Education Centers in accordance with the current educational demand in a given unit. It should be added that the organization of work in all prison schools is semester-based (September to January & February to August). This means that in each school year, prison school headteachers prepare two independent studying semesters.
The above-mentioned 219 teaching posts were distributed among 379 teachers last school year. Of this number, only 72 people were employed full-time. If we deduct 18 headteachers’ positions from this number, it turns out that in the entire country there were only 54 full-time teachers teaching prisoners. The remaining teachers, this is 81%, were employed part-time, which results from the specific nature and significant dynamics in the organization of prison schools. When it comes to teachers’ professional experience and professional advancement, the vast majority were so called certified teachers – 59.63% (226 teachers). Ninety teachers achieved the rank of a so called appointed teacher, representing 23.75% of the total; remaining 16,62%, which is 63 teachers, are so called trainee teachers.
Comparing the above data with nationwide sources, it can be seen that 379 teachers working in prisons and detention centers constitute approximately 0.73 per mille of the number of teachers working in educational institutions outside the prison education system, so it is a very small professional group. What is quite interesting is the fact that men constitute 62% of all prison teachers, which, when compared to data from outside prisons, is the complete opposite. In schools outside prison service, male teachers constitute only about 26%.
As to training offer for prison teachers in Polish prison system, sadly, it is almost non-existent. The only source that is available are internal trainings organized by headteachers within each individual prison school. There is no national offer for both teachers and headteachers. Thus, it seems that a very important undertaking would be involvement in Erasmus+ programme which offers specific courses, tailor made ones or job shadowings. As of now, only one prison school is involved in Erasmus+. This is the school run by the author of this article.
Conditions in prison schools
A very positive fact is that all prison schools in Poland are very well equipped in necessary equipment and resources. This has to be stressed and emphasized that in the years 2016-2022 a lot of money has been invested into the prison education system. In many cases, one may have a feeling that Polish prison schools have far better conditions than schools in the „outside” system. This regards not only general education but also vocational education (which seems to be more important in case of inmates). All schools have access to the Internet which is a powerful tool in teaching/learning process. To the knowledge of the author, huge majority of classrooms in all prison schools are equipped in IT and media equipment. This involves interactive whiteboards, visualizers, touchscreens/monitors, TV sets and DVD players, OHPs, etc. All vocational classrooms are also equipped in any necessary equipment/tools/utensils thanks to which vocational courses may be conducted and students are properly prepared to take their final exams (guidelines as to how vocational classrooms should be equipped come from the Central Examination Board. Not following the guidelines result in the fact that the school is not able to run the final exams).
During pandemic, obviously, we had to suspend teaching for some time. Unfortunately, there are not any tools in Polish prison system that would let us lead „normal” teaching proces during suspension. It was all based on photocopies prepared by teachers – a very old-fashioned and ineffective system. However, the prison school where the author of this article works has a very invaluable tool called CKU TV (in other words ‘school TV’). This allowed us to produce „educational programmes” that were broadcast to all prisoners at a specified time. Basically, possibilities were indefinite – some teachers prepared presentations that were shown on TV, some recorded themselves as if they were in a classroom, others downloaded ready-made lessons from the Internet open sources, etc. This proved to be an extremely useful tool and helped us survive through tough pandemic times.
Closing remarks
It would be too naive to say that providing education to prisoners is a cure for all evil and that it is the only way to achieve success in the field of social rehabilitation. This is far too complicated a process to be the case. However, it is worth considering the problem and taking into account certain arguments that seem to make it clear which path to choose. It would seem that educating people deprived of their liberty brings many benefits. In addition to the effects of better educated individuals, we give such people another chance to exist in society. We give them the tools to escape from their criminal life. Apart from the economic aspect (it is always cheaper to educate a prisoner rather than to keep them in prison), which is also very important, by educating inmates we ensure that fewer of them end up behind bars again. The positive effects of this activity will be experienced by basically everyone: prisoners directly (they will not go to prison again), their families (they will not be broken, children will not lack a parent), local communities which they come from (because, for example, ex-prisoners will take up work and will pay taxes), the entire society (potentially other citizens will not be exposed to possible harm caused by those formerly convicted) and the state as an institution, which means all of us (because there will be no need to bear the high costs of keeping these people in penal units). No wonder Petronius, an Ancient Rome politician, said that education is a treasure. It is only a pity we do not always polish that treasure which we actually hold in our hands.
Hubert Skrzynski
