DOI: 10.47743/jss-2024-70-3-11

Abstract: This article aims to provide an overview regarding some key aspects addressing the understanding of the necessity for effective prisons. It starts from the premise that the goal to have efficient prisons concretely translates into an optimal, simultaneous achievement of the functions for which this (prison) framework is created – deliver of punishment, reducing criminal recidivism, preserving human dignity and restorative justice/repairing injustice. In explaining the issues addressed, it is worth mentioning that the proposed intervention has been defined according to how societies understood the roots of criminal behavior. We also bring to the fore a number of specific factors that facilitate or hinder psychological adjustment to prison life. In addition, we briefly describe some interventions whose main purpose is to reduce criminal recidivism. Last but not least, we discuss the role of psychologists in setting up effective prisons.

Keywords: effective prison, reducing criminal recidivism, rehabilitation, psychological interventions, correctional setting.

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