Possibilities of using counselling while serving a prison sentence

6.2.1. Theoretical background

The process of serving prisoners in the prison system is carried out by systematic and professional methods of treating prisoners. At present, according to the current and strategic document Concept of Prisons until 2025, emphasis is placed primarily on the education and future employment of persons serving prison sentences (hereinafter only referred to as PSPS). In these processes, the psychosocial aspects and circumstances related to upbringing and education, prevention, and above all to rehabilitation^[1] are important. These aspects also determine the psychological development of the individual, diagnose their abilities and potential to learn – for more see docility (compare Schubert, 2019 and Schubert, Pavlov and Neupauer, 2021) and the motivation to change antisocial behaviour (cf. Veteška and Fischer, 2020).

The actual process of treatment of persons in SPS in the Czech Republic is regulated by Act 169/1999 Coll., on the Serving of a Prison Sentence, individual regulations (e.g., the internal rules of prisons), regulations and standards applicable to the treatment of all convicts and ensuring security, order and discipline, hygiene, rights and duties of prisoners. At the same time, the European Prison Rules (2006) form an essential document guiding work with convicts, which has become the most important European document facilitating respect for human rights when serving prison sentences in EU Member States, states located on the territory of the European continent (Belarus, Russia, Ukraine), and beyond (e.g., the USA or Japan in the status of so-called observers).

The European prison rules mention, interalia in the basic principles, the need to promote cooperation with external social services and, as far as possible, the involvement of civil society in prison life or the provision of imprisonment (hereinafter only referred to as SPS) in order to enable PSPS to reintegrate into a free society (Council of Europe, 2006).

The Council of Europe’s opinion also unequivocally supports work and training activities. The work activities of convicts are considered to be the basic starting point for achieving rehabilitation, i.e., first correction of behaviour and then reintegration into society. Selected recommendations focusing on work activities that fully support rehabilitation according to European rules are:

• “Prisoners’ work must be seen as a positive element of the prison regime and must never be used as punishment.
• Work must be of such a nature that, as far as possible, maintains or enhances the ability of prisoners to earn their usual subsistence after release.
• Prisoners for whom it could be beneficial, especially young prisoners, must be provided with work involving vocational training.
• The organisation and methods of work in correctional facilities must be as similar as possible to work in society outside prison in order to prepare prisoners for the conditions of normal work life after being released to freedom.
• Prisoners should be encouraged to save part of their earnings as savings that will be paid at the time of their release or that can be used for other permitted purposes” (Council of Europe, 2006, pp. 9-10).”

Selected recommendations focused on education that fully support rehabilitation according to European rules are:

• “Every correctional facility must strive to ensure that all prisoners have access to educational programmes that are as comprehensive as possible, meeting their individual needs and taking into account their ambitions.
• Priority must be given to the preparation of programmes for prisoners who are illiterate or unable to count and for prisoners who had not completed primary or vocational education.
• Particular attention should be paid to the education of young prisoners and prisoners with special needs.
• Education and training should be regarded as part of the prison regime, and education should enjoy the same status as work activity, but prisoners must not be financially or otherwise disadvantaged for their participation in educational programmes.
• Every correctional facility must make available to prisoners a library adequately equipped with a wide range of recreational and educational resources, books and other media” (Council of Europe, 2006, p. 11).

Thus, andragogical intervention plays an important role in the application of the above-noted work and educational activities in penitentiary care. However, the effectiveness of andragogic intervention lies primarily in counselling and professional care corresponding to the individual disposition of the convicted person – for example, individual learning style, motivation and willingness to change behaviour, intelligence, abilities and skills of the convicted person (Veteška and Fischer, 2020). If such an intervention is to be effective, it must also focus on working with crime, i.e., on focusing on the act committed and on identifying criminogenic risks and related factors (e.g. financial indebtedness, long-term unemployment together with a low level of education, insufficient cognitive abilities, various forms of addiction, etc.) and, above all, on their elimination. When using such focused programmes, which take into account the individual dispositions of convicts, there is a growing need to use more sophisticated diagnostic tools and methodological procedures that also significantly affect the counselling process.

Summary analysis of offender risks and needs – SARPO

The SARPO diagnostic tool was introduced in the Czech penal environment in 2012 when the methodology and procedure of processing a comprehensive report on a convict in the intake department of a prison was established. The areas that SARPO encompasses are primarily family and relationships, housing, education and employment, addictions, attitudes, thinking and behaviour. The interest of society is to invest efforts in those convicted for whom the change will lead to a reduction in danger to society. The use and process of this diagnostic tool is illustrated in the diagram below.

Figure 21: Use of the SARPO diagnostic tool

Source: Adapted from Drahý  et al. (2018)

When using this diagnostic tool, the assessment is converted into text and inserted in the form of a comprehensive report into the Prison Information System, where it is available online to all authorised or professional staff who continue to work with the convicts. The comprehensive report itself serves as a starting point for the selection of the most appropriate strategies in the treatment programmes. This is regularly evaluated and, if necessary, further adapted to the risks and needs of the convicted person. Subsequently, this tool is used to process an evaluation, for example serving as a basis for reassigning a convicted person to a milder type of prison and as a basis for a decision on conditional release. At the same time, this tool identifies individuals’ so-called dynamic risk factors in the most vulnerable areas, which serve as a guide for subsequent intervention and other professional (counselling, educational-psychological) processes (Veteška and Fischer, 2020).

An integral part of the evaluation process is the evaluators themselves who are directly involved in the SARPO diagnosis and processing of the Comprehensive Report. These evaluators include an educator, social worker, psychologist and special educator (Drahý et al., 2018). These experts are specialists of the Prison Enforcement Department and are most involved in the establishment and implementation of the treatment, re-education^[2], rehabilitation and reintegration^[3] of persons serving prison sentences. Each of the following staff has a specific work area when using the SARPO diagnostic tool, which it focuses on, and thus it contributes to the identification and characterization of information about the convicted person:

• educator – focuses on static factors (criminal past) and adaptation in prison;
• psychologist – risk of harm (analysis of crime with an impact on the victim), dynamic factors (e.g., housing, employment, finances, etc.);
• social worker – dynamic factors; and
• special educator – protective factors (risk counterweight, protective and damping factors) and self-evaluation (self-reflective questionnaire).

This information is crucial for working with convicts during SPS and helps professionals in the process of rehabilitation of convicts. This information also contributes to the counselling process because after this diagnosis prison staff know the prisoner’s personal history, which represents a description of the person’s status with a summary of data on the individual’s development, family background, housing, educational attainment and, above all, his or her criminal history.

Treatment programmes

Treatment programmes are an important tool for the re-socialisation objectives in the context of imprisonment. This programme is compulsory for every prisoner, taking into account the possibilities and abilities of each individual, his or her educational and work experience, as well as his or her personal interests. It is important that convicted prisoners are assisted during their sentence, i.e., before they are released. Various programmes aim to enable convicts to move from prison life to a life of civil integrity and to reduce the negative impacts of being imprisoned (Veteška and Fischer, 2020). In the practice of the Czech prison environment, these are so-called treatment programmes.^[4]

The treatment program is regulated by law and is intended for anyone who is sentenced to a period longer than 90 days. It is prepared on the basis of a comprehensive report that takes into account the length of the sentence, the characteristics of the convicted person’s personality and the causes of the crime. The report summarises the results of psychological, pedagogical, social and medical assessments, as well as the results of risk assessment and other information related to the person convicted. The treatment program is implemented mainly by professional pedagogical staff of the penal system of the Czech Republic and is one of the most important tools of attaining rehabilitation goals. Counselling itself is very important for the rehabilitation of the convict. Methods of practical rehabilitation in the prison environment are divided into two groups (Veteška, 2015):

• general methods of treating convicts: normative regulations and rules (laws, regulations, hygiene) that ensure discipline and operation within the prison; and
• special methods of treating convicts: pedagogical, andragogical, social, psychological and psychiatric methods that are aimed at individual or group work with convicts.

Thus, counselling is one of the special methods of treating convicts within the framework of methods of practical rehabilitation. The treatment programme is drawn up on the basis of the identified risks of the offender, using the above-mentioned SARPO diagnostic tool. The treatment programme is then drawn up according to the level of risk, which can be low, medium to high or high to very high (Veteška, 2015).

The creation of the programme begins already at the time of the individual’s commencement of serving of the sentence. This does not apply to detention centres, where the accused are seen as blameless due to the presumption of innocence. After a comprehensive report, the form of the treatment programme is determined, when the special educator creates an individual treatment programme. They undertake an interview with the convict where they present the offer of educational, social-education and leisure activities, taking into account the possibilities of the prison. The convict chooses an activity from the offer to devote themselves to and commits to the activity’s goals. If they fail to choose anything they must comply with the minimum treatment programme prescribed by the internal rules of the prison (Veteška and Fischer, 2020). Treatment programmes contain cultural and educational activities. These are mainly activities carried out in the form of group meetings and are based on a specific offer of the treatment program in the following areas:

• educational – short-term educational courses, educational competitions, popular educational discussions and lectures;
• interests – knowledge and skill competitions, sports matches;
• special methods – group counselling, therapeutic group, socio-psychological training, social and legal counselling, individual psychological and pedagogical care; and
• work – employment, part-time jobs, work in prison, occupational therapy (Veteška and Fischer, 2020).

6.2.2. Counselling during serving of a custodial sentence

In the penal system of the Czech Republic emphasis is placed on consulting at OSPS. In this context, counselling can be seen as a specific professional activity, with a clearly defined objective, while observing the necessary stages of the counselling process. Consulting can also be understood as a separate applied discipline that deals with theory, research and practice in the consulting field. The ability of a counsellor should be in the art of giving effective advice, in the right (appropriate) way, to the person involved and at the right time, i.e., with correct timing (Veteška, 2016).

Individuals in SPS should be successfully re-socialized and integrated into society. Data from the Prison Service of the Czech Republic show that the recidivism rate of released individuals from SPS is one of the highest in the EU. It is therefore necessary to appropriately choose interventions for these individuals and to have a positive effect on them through various approaches. However, the focus for this text is educational insight (with an emphasis on andragogical interaction and andragogical specifics of the approach and work with the target group of OSPS) and consultancy (including the use of human capital mobilisation in an integral-andragogical concept and basic and professional social counselling). At the same time, a rehabilitation and interventionist view are necessary, as this is the only way to achieve a positive and optimal balance between the humanistic, social and democratisation aspects (Veteška, 2015).

Consulting is always a controlled process that is conducted with an individual in SPS by a professional employee. The aim is to find a solution for seemingly insolvable (current or long-term) situations and to gradually work toward the set goal. However, consulting does not have to be only a solution to problems, but also a way to find, for example, a suitable work focus. The subchapters below deal with three types of counselling from the perspective of individual humanistic subjects (andragogy and social work) that are applied when working with convicts.

6.2.3 Andragogical counselling in SPS

As Stated by Veteška (2016, p. 55), “andragogical counselling has been in recent years set aside as a separate applied discipline dealing with theory, research and practice in the field of counselling. Specifically, it is a specialised professional activity provided to different target groups of adults at different life stages and with different contents”.

According to Pavlov (2021, p. 64) andragogic counselling is approached from two viewpoints:

• In a narrower sense, it is a guidance in learning for adults (how to learn better, how to study effectively, how to use learning strategies and how to improve the potential for docility).
• In a broader sense, it is counselling concerning problems (work or personal) of an adult that can be solved by learning and acquiring the necessary competencies, strategies and knowledge to overcome the problem.

In the conditions of SPS, andragogy is spoken of in the context of a versatile effect on the personality of an adult using educational action that includes a wide range of possibilities of formal and non-formal education, including informal learning.

A key area in andragogical counselling in SPS appears to be the knowledge of the original cause of the emergence and development of anti-social forms of behaviour, which concerns not only intervention, but also the issues of learning, education and counselling. All this permeates the process of penitentiary care and the effort to achieve corrective changes in the structure of the prisoner’s personality, i.e., the rehabilitation of the individual. Andragogy in intervention and rehabilitation uses the knowledge of special pedagogy, psychology, sociology and other disciplines for subsequent corrective influence of adults. Knowledge of the problems of previous development of these persons is an important condition for the creation of intervention and rehabilitation activities in terms of their necessary effectiveness. These problems of previous development are known to prison specialists based on the SARP diagnostic tool (see Chapter 1.2) (Veteška and Fischer, 2020).

The Prison Service of the Czech Republic declares that education, i.e., formal and non-formal education, which plays an important role in the process of rehabilitation, is used in the treatment of persons in the SPS. At the same time, the education of convicts helps social rehabilitation and re-education, which is important for possible future successful integration into society. The crucial role of formal education and retraining can then be seen in the release of the above-mentioned persons, in which these persons can get employment, housing and engage in fulfilment of their former^[5] obligations. Andragogical counselling is focused on learning of the target group of adults in various contexts, situations, environments and conditions of their lives (Pavlov, 2020).

Formal education is provided through the Prison Service’s own educational centres of secondary vocational schools (hereinafter referred to as “CSVS”) and also with the help of cooperating state and private entities e.g., primary schools, secondary vocational schools, secondary schools, tertiary professional schools and, exceptionally, universities). Formal education is completed with a certificate of education. Non-formal education includes the educational activities of the treatment programme. Partial educational programmes (courses) may, similarly to formal education, be completed with a certificate of completion.

• Social andragogic counselling in SPS

Andragogical tools form the basis of successful rehabilitation and integration of the individual into society. Mainly education, training and counselling are used. These are key tools in working with convicts. In the last few years, social andragogy in particular has brought significant starting points (Veteška, 2016). In the context of working with convicts, we are talking about social andragogy, which examines the relationship between the social environment, the social situation of the individual and his or her educational potential (i.e., the possibilities and willingness to further educate). “Social andragogy seeks to integrate the adult into society during the process of socialisation and helps disadvantaged individuals through counselling and education to deal with a crisis and unexpected life situations” (Veteška, 2016, p. 49).

The key objective of social andragogy in the context of penitentiary care is to participate in the process of rehabilitation primarily through educational activities, counselling (e.g., social and andragogical counselling), to improve social relations (e.g., with the family), to create appropriate interpersonal relationships and to help convicts respect social norms. Counselling in the context of social andragogy is based on the requirement and need to maintain quality interpersonal relationships and is based on the assumption that the person who has problems is also the person who has the resources needed to solve them (Cf. Hartl, 2009; Hatar, 2012).

Social andragogic counselling thus focuses primarily on adult individuals from various social groups who encounter or suffer from social disadvantage, social exclusion, social deprivation, which can lead to a deformation of their relational moral values, attitudes and subsequent personality changes. Solving these challenging situations, which result, for example, from imprisonment, prisonization, release from prison, solution of crisis and unexpected life situations can be influenced by properly applied counselling activities.

In general, the counsellor should have a number of professional and other (transversal) competencies that will allow effectively leading of the counselling process in practice.

Consultancy viewed through the lenses of social andragogy presents important means to ensure equality of opportunities on the labour market and the market of education for all. At the same time, we could also mention an adequate position in society (building social capital) because social andragogy strives to maintain quality interpersonal relationships.

^[1] Rehabilitation is most commonly mentioned in the context of targeted (deliberate) re-education of adults in cases in which the behaviour of an individual fails to meet the applicable standards of society. At the same time it represents a sociological concept, which itself deals with the process of mental and emotional re-education of  persons so that they would become capable of existing in a different environment than the one they have become used to. Rehabilitation re-educates about cultural and social norms and sanctions those individuals who voluntarily or involuntarily left the social system so they can again be fully included into the majority social system (Veteška, 2015). According to (Veteška and Fischer 2020, p. 105), the process of rehabilitation generally means that: “an adult or adolescent (who has already undergone a rehabilitation process) is adapting to new behaviour and standards”.

^[2] “Re-education is a “a certain effort to change the attitudes and behaviour of persons with undesirable behaviours and distorted values or attitudes. It concerns, for example, individuals with delinquent and antisocial behaviour or persons serving a prison sentence” (Průcha, Veteška, 2014, p. 233).“

^[3] “The concept of reintegration can be simply defined: “as the successful reintegration of an individual into a society with which the relationship has been disrupted by the execution of a prison sentence” (Veteška and Fischer, 2020, p. 104).“

^[4] “Prisonization is the process of psychological transformation of a free, i.e., autonomous individual, into a prisoner. This is the technique of adaptation to life in prison” (Veteška and Fischer, 2020, p. 124).

^[5] Many people serving a prison sentence are confronted with financial problems after their release either on account of their criminal activities or due to other reasons. Debts are a very topical issue to which a prison service is trying to respond via education of convicts (Compare Veteška & Fischer, 2020; Rozum & Tomášek et al. 2016).