Sociologie Românească, Vol. VIII, no. 3/2010, pp. 39-51.
Implicaţiile prizonizării asupra procesului de resocializare a deţinuţilor
The implications of prisonization on the resocialization process of detainees
Anamaria Szabo*
*University of Bucharest
Abstract: The article is a theoretical study, part of the research project 'Deculturation as effect of detention. Resocialization in the context of the regressive and progressive regime of prison sentence execution' (Dobrică, 2008a). This study's main hypothesis is that prisonization presupposes two parallel processes: deculturation (defined as the loss of the ability to imagine solutions and to take decisions necessary for social integration) and enculturarion (defined as the taking on and/or deepening of the ability to imagine solutions and to take decisions regarding the adaptation to the prison subculture, which is opposed to social integration). Both deculturation and enculturation influence the success of inmate resocialization. The study sketches, from a Goffmanian approach, the main characteristics of, and social-psychological processes within, total institutions, and discusses the functions of prison. Also, it underlines the mechanisms which produce deculturation and enculturarion in prison and analyses the two predominant models which explain inmate subculture - the deprivation and importation models. The article ends with a short discussion on the adverse positioning between prisonization and inmate resocialization, and formulates a series of hypothesis for the further study of the prisonization impact on the inmate resocialization process.
Keywords: prison, prisonization, deculturation, enculturation, inmate resocialization.
Cuvinte-cheie: închisoare, prizonizare, deculturaţie, enculturaţie, resocializarea deţinutului.