The Hidden Life of Polish Prisons

by Paweł Moczydłowski

The first behind-the-walls look at the "hidden life" of Polish prisons, this book penetrates the inmates' facade of silence and deception toward outsiders and presents a vivid portrait of the prison's secret social organization. In Poland, as in the United States, the stated aim of imprisonment is to resocialize inmates to prepare them to reenter normal society. But in a country where every eighth adult male has gone to prison, over 30 percent more than once, the efficacy of incarceration has been called into question. Moczydtowski set out to discover that feature of prison which might account for the failure of the penal system. He found it in the prison's unique social structure. The secret life of prisons, he finds, is generated by three groups of relations: in the prisoners' community, in the community of prison functionaries, and in the relations between the prisoners and the functionaries. His description of the origins and functions of these hidden relationships is both a unique look at life behind bars in an Eastern European country and an important contribution to comparative criminology.

190 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Marek Kaminski · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent pioneering study of the prison subculture in three prisons with different levels of security regulations. Dr. Moczydłowski invented many ingenious ways to reach the prisoners whose world is secretive and whose methods of defending their secrets are very smart. There are also interesting observations on the relations between inmates and guards, and on the guards' community. This book is a superb work in observing participation.