The Importance of Family in the Lives of Victimised Convicts – Opinions, Evaluations and Needs

Abstract

The questions addressed in the present paper concern the family relations of persons deprived of freedom
who - remaining in the prison environment - have been degraded, that is convicts occupying the lowest
rung in the informal penitentiary system, so-called victimized prisoners. They make a specific community,
rejected and humiliated by other inmates. The necessity to ensure safety to them and help them protect
their personal characteristics generates difficulties in activities of rehabilitative character.
The aim of the research was to show the family relations of people degraded in the prison environment
- a subject that has not been studied to date. The method of diagnostic survey was used, including the
technique of questionnaire and interview. Two original research tools were designed. The research was
conducted within a group of 151 victimized prisoners and 15 correction officers.
Good relations with the loved ones, on the other hand, influence the convicts both whole in the penal
institution and after they leave it. Furthermore, the convicts’ consciousness that they are supported by their
closest relatives determines their thinking about themselves: they do not feel rejected, which - in the case
of persons degraded in their environment - is of utmost importance.