Pełnoletniość więzienna – strategie adaptacji do długoterminowej izolacji na podstawie analizy przypadków trzech kobiet najdłużej odbywających karę dożywotniego pozbawienia wolności w Polsce
Authors: Maria Ejchart-Dubois  , Monika Markowska  
Published: July 2024

According to Polish Penitentiary Service statistics, there were 2131 women serving sentences in Polish prisons as of January 2016, 400 of whom had been convicted for homicide. 13 were serving life sentences. The article describes our research on three women who were the first to be sentenced to life imprisonment in Poland and have already served 19 years of their sentences. During this time, each was transferred to another penitentiary facility at least a couple of times, and changed cells and cellmates several times. Each encountered several dozen educators, psychologists, wardens, and prison directors. This long period also saw significant changes in their family status. The places where they were confined and the people they had met impacted the way each functioned in prison. Our research consisted in an analysis of court records: the sentences, expert, psychiatric and psychological opinions, as well as other documents produced during the course of criminal proceedings, including media reports and prison records (personal file B). Open interviews with the women were a vital component of the study – we met with each inmate at least once and conducted a three-hour interview at her place of detention. The study was carried out between May 2015 and February 2016.By analysing the material collected, we created a criminal profile of each of the women, who had spent the last 19 years in prison. We described the evolution of their attitudes towards the crime and the trial, as well as their outlook as it had evolved throughout their time in prison; their life goals, and the influence of external circumstances (such as their place of confinement and the type of contacts each had with the outside world) on their lives and life plans. It proved extremely difficult to say who these women are. They have not confessed to the crimes for which they were sentenced and have spent a great part of their lives in prison, living without the prospect of being released at any specific time. Their functioning in prison does not match any of the adaptation strategies described in the literature on the subject. The aim of our research was also to determine the purpose of life imprisonment. The question becomes particularly important as the date approaches when these women, the first to be sentenced to this extreme form of punishment, will acquire the right to apply for parole. Our analysis of the way these women have been serving their life sentences shows that Prison Service officers consider the main purpose of life imprisonment to be isolation. This view is not surprising, yet one must ask whether after 20 years in prison one would not do well to reconsider the hierarchy of goals that are to be served by imprisonment. It is beyond doubt that the way the women have been serving their sentences has been influenced by their attitude to the crime and by the fact that none of them had ever admitted her guilt. At the same time none of them denies her responsibility as a participant of the event. Because none of the women studied had ‘killed someone with her own hands’, they are in a convenient psychological position. They do not have to come to terms with having deprived another human being of life, although they do not deny their complicity. Their attitude to the committed crimes might prove decisive when applying for parole. Our research does not provide unequivocal answers to the questions we set out to answer, yet it proves that serving very long sentences should involve planning. The way the women function shows that they themselves largely organise their time in prison, seek work as well as educational, cultural and sports opportunities. The restraint shown by the prison authorities in offering such activities comes from the fact that a life sentence means that working with this category of inmates can always be put off till later. This was evidenced by the vague and general formulation of the goals each of the female inmates had in her individual programme. The place of detention is another important factor when it comes to quality of life in prison. Penitentiary facilities differ in terms of their architectural arrangements, the conditions of imprisonment, but also in terms of the types of activities offered, the possibility of taking up work and study, and the relations between prison staff and inmates. By observing their attitude today, we can conclude that each woman has put her time in prison to a different use. We don’t know what the prison administration and penitentiary court will make of this when the convicts apply for parole. To assess whether the inmates have changed it will not be enough to examine their behaviour and the number of times applications were put in to reward or punish them. We need intensive work with the inmates, in-depth observation and an examination of their personalities, which should be carried out by a qualified psychologist. Yet such opinions are lacking in the penitentiary records of the studied inmates. It is difficult to plan an adequate course of action without assessing the inmates’ current deficits and needs. The studied women each chose a different path for herself. M.R. is succumbing to unconscious degeneration and resignation. She is calculating; she knows how to survive in prison, yet she deeply resents this place. M.O. is the most uncertain and emotionally unstable, one doesn’t know what to expect of her, but as long she does not absorb the attention of the prison staff, they show little interest in her. M.Sz. is the ‘safest’ from the standpoint of the Prison Service; her attitude often evokes surprise that one can be doing so well in prison with a life sentence. One might get the impression that she is acting, but is it possible to pretend for almost 20 years?Because life imprisonment has no fixed term, it seems rational to treat it as a chance to improve one’s life, even if one never leaves the prison walls. This task requires making the inmates feel responsible for every possible area of their lives. Each of the examined women put the opportunities available to her to a different use. The quarter century after which they will be able to apply for a court review of their punishment is a long time, which they, for most part, have not taken full advantage of.