DYNAMIC SECURITY Polish experiences, challenges and solutions

1. DYNAMIC SECURITYPolish experiences, challenges and solutions Col lieut. Andrzej Majcherczyk Senior specialist Central Board of Prison Service Riga, 9th -10th November 2016

2. Polish penitentiary system – basic information: • 156 penitentiary units of total capacity for 81.901 places; present population at the level of 87%; • 27.357prison staff and 1.839 civil workers employed by Prison Service per 71.204 inmates; statistically 1 prison officer per 2,4 inmates (of 14.10.2016); • imprisonment rate per 100 000 of 168 inmates (of31.08.2016); • 52,23% of inmates are placed in a penitentiary isolation not for the first time; • 34,5% of inmates are re-offenders according to the regulations of the penal code (who have been sentenced again for the same or similar crime committed within 5 years after being released from the prison); • As regards prison population, there is a small number of female inmates (about 3% ) and foreign inmates (below 1%); • At the moment 42,5% of prison population are employed (70,4% are able to work).

3. In 2015 there were 2425 incidents that occurred in penitentiary units, such as for example: • 4 escapes from a prison area (6 inmates participated in that incident); • 2 escapes from transportation; • 170 escapes from workplace outside the prison; • 94 assaults against prison staff while fulfilling the duties • 1 rape of an inmate; • 29 cases of ill-treatment of an inmate; • 909 cases of disclosure of items causing threat to the security and order of the prison; • 154 suicide attempts; • 19 suicides (prisoners have recently committedon average about 20 suicides a year; an indicator: 2,44 suicides per 10 thousand inmates); • 987 fights or beatings.

4. According to Poland’s experience, security of prison staff and of a prison depend mostly on: • Proper relations between prison staff and inmates; • Proper relations among inmates; • Sufficient involvement and participation of inmates in their daily free time activities; • Efficient collecting of information on possible threats to security; its analysing and exchange

5. Some historical background: The prison system in Poland before 1989 was oppressive and restricting. Prison conditions were difficult; prison internal regulations were strict and a kind of „second life” was developing inside prisons: prisoners often initiated some starvations, self-injuries and even some riots After the transformation of the system, new Director General of Prison Service, Paweł Moczydłowskiphd, announced ‚relaxation’ term in order to decrease the tensions and stress in prisons. As a new approach to imprisonment: • The internal regulations became more liberal (inmates were allowed to wear civil clothes; employment became a privilege not an obligation); the number of activities organized outside the prison for the inmates increased; inmates could more often go outside on a pass; • A widespread change of staff; more social workers , psychologists, therapeutists were employed; new programmes and new activities were introduced; • New policies and procedures were introduced; their aim was to increase the internal security in prisons (an instruction on suicide prevention of inmates; an order on prevention of smuggling drugs into prisons); • Prison service activities became subject to controls of external institutions, like e.g. the Ombudsman; • Prisons became open to cooperation with community; many different NGOs, associations and other institutions got involved in the execution of imprisonment;

6. The oppressive character of the prison system decreased and the system was stabilized for many years which resulted in: • Peacefulness in prisons – no more riots – normal working conditions with prisoners; • Decrease of the number of incidents (starvations, self injuries, suicides); • Increase of motivation to work among inmates; • Weakening and decrease of non-formal formations created by prisoners adversarial to prison staff. At the same time the level of stress increased among prison staff and the prison staff became the most stressed element in the prison system.

7. Some aspects destabilizing the security in prisons in previous years: • Overpopulation in prisons and too little living space per one inmate (3 square meters); • Multi- inmates cells; • Lack of employment for prisoners (decrease of paid employment was the result of verdict of the Constitutional Tribunal; • Inactivity and boredom among inmates (due to the lack of employment and insufficient availability of leisure time activities) Some of these threats were successfully overcame

8. Other system challenges that may constitute threats to security: • Too few prison staff for direct contact – uncontrolled increase of administration staff; • Alienated attitude of logistic staff and administration staff in prisons (administration staff does not want to be involved in any contact with prisoners) • Increase of bureaucracy - overburdening of first line prison staff and insufficient support for them – leaving social workers alone with many problems with inmates.

9. Activities undertaken in prisons to increase dynamic security: • Removal of outside armed checkpoints - transferring prison security staff to duties inside prisons, to residential units (about 500 staff); • Reform of the prison structure: dividing big prisons into smaller divisions (so called penitentiary divisions); • Introducing working limits for social workers (one social worker should work with no more than 40 prisoners and no more than 60 temporarily arrested; one psychologist should work with no more than 200 inmates)

10. Reform of the security service Before the reform:

11. Reform of the security service After the reform:

12. Penitentiary divisions: Due to the initiative of the Minister of Justice in 2010, the reform of the prison service structure was introduced. The reform included prisons, remand prisons with more than 200 inmates where the structure of penitentiary divisions was implemented. The penitentiary divisions are a separated part of the prison/remand prison and are equipped with separate and specially selected staff to work with groups of inmates, classified according to the degree of demoralization, degree of threat they constitute, openness to rehabilitation process.

13. Aims of the penitentiary divisions: • Creating interdisciplinary teams of staff characterized by increased motivation, responsibility and efficiency in fulfilling the duties • Efficient solving the problems and managing the day- to- day issues of inmates • Improving decision taking by simplifying the organizational structure of a prison; • Better recognizing of emotional attitudes and moods among inmates, developing better atmosphere for rehabilitation process; increasing security • Involving logistic staff in the rehabilitation process of inmates and managing their issues and problems • Releasing the social workers from the tasks that can be performed by other departments

14. A penitentiarydivision Beforeintroducing the penitentiarydivisions Deputydirector Social workers A psychologist A unit officer A security officer (accompanying to an inmate) Logistic department staff A social worker and a unit officer inmates Assisting staff (registery staff, financial staff, medical staff) inmates

15. Structure of the prison before introducing the penitentiary divisions DIRECTOR ZASTĘPCA DYREKTORA DEPUTY DIRECTOR Head of the penitentiary department Head of the security department ADMINISTRATION ODDZIAŁ ODDZIAŁ ODDZIAŁ INDEPENDENT SPECIALISTS ODDZIAŁ ODDZIAŁ ODDZIAŁ Unit unit unit REGISTRY DEPARTMENT LOGISTIC DEPARTMENT Wychowawca i oddziałowy Wychowawca i oddziałowy Wychowawca i oddziałowy Wychowawca i oddziałowy Wychowawca i oddziałowy Social worker and a unit officer Social worker and a unit officer Wychowawca i oddziałowy FINANCIAL DEPARTMENT Social worker and a unit officer HEALTH CARE OSADZENI OSADZENI OSADZENI OSADZENI OSADZENI OSADZENI INMATES INMATES INMATES

16. STRUCTURE OF THE PRISON WITH PENITENTIARY DIVISIONS DIRECTOR ADMINISTRATIO PENITENTIARY DIVISION I PENITENTIARY DIVISION II PENITENTIARY DIVISION III INDEPENDENT SPECIALISTS REGISTRY DEPARTMENT DEPUTY DIRECTOR WITH DIVISION STAFF DEPUTY DIRECTOR WITH DIVISION STAFF DEPUTY DIRECTOR WITH DIVISION STAFF LOGISTIC DEPARTMENT FINANCIAL DEPARTMENT INMATES INMATES INMATES SECURITY DEPARTMENT HEALTH CARE PENITENTIARY DEPARTMENT

17. Results of introducing penitentiary divisions: • Increased number of staff working in direct contact with inmates • More efficient documentation flow and exchange of information within penitentiary division • Increased efficiency and speed of solving day-to-day problems and issues as regards inmates and prison staff working in the penitentiary division • Additional support for first line staff (logistic staff, registry staff, financial staff) • Better organization and efficiency of performed duties

18. Norwegian Grants: • They initiated new changes towards a new direction of even more rational penitentiary policy in Poland; • Many representatives of ourstaffvisitedNorwegianprisons and brought from therenewideas; • These people do not decide about the shape of our system yet, but in 10 years they willbe directors of the prisons and they will predominantly impact the work with inmates; • Thanks to the bilateral cooperation within Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009-2014 we implemented new programmesand new programmes are always the beginning of changes of the organization • In the context of the dynamic security, it is worth mentioniong the ‘Motivator’ programme from Ila prison, based on a Motivational Dialoque which is being implemented in 15 Polish prisons;

19. Our challenges: • We aim atmeeting the standards of treatment of inmates that are the same or very similar to the ones presented by our Norwegian colleagues and friends, yet we have much fewer resources, which means that our results are often achieved by means of burdening our staff • Constantoverworkingincreasesstress and frustrationamongourstaff; lack of goodworkingconditionsresults in professionalturnover and burnout; • Challenge no.1 – how to improve standards for inmates treatment and not to overburden our staff at the same time and keep at the rational and acceptable level? • Challenge no.2 – how to get security staff engaged in rehabilitation and readaptation process of the inmates? • Challenge no. 3- a risk of repeatedrepression of the justice system

20. Thankyou for yourattention Col lieut. Andrzej Majcherczyk Senior specialist Central Board of Prison Service Andrzej.Majcherczyk@sw.gov.pl Riga, 9-10th November 2016