Freedom of movement is denied to imprisoned persons. Most other rights should be guaranteed to them in the same level as they are at liberty. In my Master's thesis, I wanted to explore how freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as a spiritual care, is carried out while serving a prison sentence and what role religious communities can play in achieving the resocialization of prisoners.
At the beginning, a historical account of the purpose of the prison sentence is presented. Imprisonment as a punishment in today's world seems to be the most righteous form of punishment, because it is timely measurable, which in practice means easier calculation of penalties for judges.
The following is a presentation of the legal framework for the functioning of religious communities. The freedom of thought, conscience and religion is guaranteed in all major international acts. In the Slovenian legal order, religious communities have a constitutional and legal basis for functioning. Concretization of the right of an individual to spiritual care in prison is found in secondary legislation.
I am trying to answer the question of how and to what extent religious communities can contribute to the re-socialization of an individual by naming the reasons provided by prisoners for attending religious programs. Then follows the presentation of the way in which religious communities operate in France and the United States, followed by a description of the same activity in Slovenia. Alongside discussion if a religious community can help to reduce recidivism is presented. Finally, I present the problem of radicalism in prisons.
|
