PRISON EDUCATION IN POLAND: SPECIFICS AND CHALLENGES

The problems presented in the text refer to the education of convicts in Poland. It has been based on current Polish legal regulations, statistical data and specialist literature. The problems which refer to the education of convicts in Poland are regulated by the Act of 6th June 1997, the Executive Penal Code, the Act on the Education System and executive acts to the above-mentioned regulations. The current situation in the labour market requires people to acquire education and to improve their qualifications. People without education, who are excluded from the access to professional development and in-service training, find themselves in an extremely difficult situation. The lack of qualification and vocational skills usually leads to exclusion from the labour market. People who serve their sentences in prisons find themselves in a particularly difficult situation, because their lack of education may push them back into crime. A very positive tendency that may be observed in Poland is a growing demand for prison education. Convicts may acquire knowledge and raise their qualifications at various levels and in various fields. They may follow the curricula at the level of a primary or secondary school; they may pass their Matura certificate and, after the consent of relevant authorities, they can continue their education at the university level. Convicts may also learn a new profession, change their professional qualifications or acquire new additional skills during specialist courses. The qualifications acquired in this way shall meet current demand in the labour market, and convicts may find employment after they leave prisons. Education allows them to improve their self-esteem and self-reliance, to catch up with any deficiencies and to work on their self-discipline. At the same time, education offers opportunities to expand knowledge, to return to the society and to the labour market. It is important for convicts to obtain opportunities for education, since such a chance comes as a significant factor of their social re-adaptation. Considering social values, it is important to foster the pursuit for education among convicts. A lot of prisoners still do not want to learn, and this fact may result from their previous school failures, the sense of embarrassment caused by their knowledge deficiencies, the lack of interest and faith in their own potential. The material for the text has been collected on the basis of the method of theoretical analysis, and it includes available statistical data, legal regulations and literature which refers to the discussed problems. The article aims at the presentation of prison education, how it is organised in Poland and what advantages it presents for both: convicts and the society. The text also presents programmes of prison education which are implemented by correctional staff in prisons.