Watchmen or Guards? The Prison Guard in the Second Polish Republic
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/APH.2018.118.03Keywords
Prison Guard, prisons, Second Polish Republic, penology, criminals, PolandAbstract
The officer core of the Prison Guard (Straż Więzienna, SW), a formation established only as late as 1932, emerged from the narrow circle of persons associated with the Prison Section, which emerged in 1918. Its membership consisted of a small cadre of Polish guards who had gained experience in prisons controlled by the occupying powers. Unless they had worked in prisons before 1918, the rank-andfile of the SW consisted of demobilised and/or retired soldiers as well as of would-be or ex-policemen. ‘Street people’ in many cases, they treated the work as temporary or took it up as an easy job. The reality they faced on the other side of the wall quickly verified their convictions about the task they had accepted. As a result, the ranks of the SW were given to heavy rotation, evident up to 1939. Employees of the interwar prison system did not enjoy much public regard; for some, leaving the army to become a prison guard felt like social degradation. Aside from a few minor exceptions – such as prison breaks, stories of convict abuse – this peculiar group of workers was generally absent from the public narrative of the re-established state. Naturally, its problems were debated among experts, but these debates did not seep into the press as often as those concerning the police. For many years after 1918, the SW continued to be perceived through the nineteenthcentury image of the guard as watchman, a personification of the oppressive partition governments. SW functionaries associated with the labour union established in 1932 as well as the Przegląd Więziennictwa Polskiego (Polish Penal Review) magazine took up the daunting task of improving that image.
The article provides an analysis of their efforts, attempting a response whether their goals were achieved, at least to a degree. My focus is on the public perception of the formation, while I also try to establish whether its foundation and development was perceived as a success (as was the case, for instance, with the police). My interests, however, are not limited to the media and public image of the SW corps, but also include the conditions under which its members laboured. In this context, I am particularly interested in the realities of the prison corridor; in the article, I attempt to describe the tenor of the relations between guards and prisoners in contemporary prisons (especially the prevailing aggression). Finally, I pursue a reconstruction of the image/s of the SW created by convicts, with particular focus on the significance of the change associated with the year 1918.
My analysis leads to somewhat pessimistic conclusions. The major changes involved in the professionalization of the cadres and partial implementation of the prison reform that also affected the SW do not appear to have been satisfactory. Attempts to dismantle stereotypes of the guards could only achieve limited success, and the SW remained a formation of thoroughly dubious quality.
References
Bugajski Zygmunt, Księga jubileuszowa więziennictwa polskiego 1918–1928 (Warszawa, 1929).
Carlier Christian, Histoire du personnel des prisons françaises du XVIIIe siècle à nos jours (Paris, 1997).
Czołgoszewski Jerzy, ‘Organizacja więziennictwa i służba więzienna w Królestwie Polskim w latach 1815–1868’, Przegląd Więziennictwa Polskiego, 85 (2014), 115–42.
Czołgoszewski Jerzy, ‘Więziennictwo Księstwa Warszawskiego (1807–1815)’, Przegląd Więziennictwa Polskiego, 69 (2010), 129–42.
Forsythe Bill, ‘Women prisoners and women penal officials 1840–1921’, British Journal of Criminology, xxxiii (1993), 525–40.
Jeziorski Paweł A., Margines społeczny w dużych miastach Prus i Inflant w późnym średniowieczu i wczesnych czasach nowożytnych (Toruń, 2009).
Johnston Helen, ‘Gendered prison work. Female prison officers in the local prison system 1877–1939’, Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, liii, 2 (2014), 193–212.
Kaczyńska Elżbieta, Ludzie ukarani. Więzienia i system kar w Królestwie Polskim 1815–1864 (Warszawa, 1989).
Karpińska Małgorzata, Złodzieje, agenci, policyjni strażnicy… Przestępstwa pospolite w Warszawie 1815–1830 (Warszawa, 1999).
Kozłowska-Ryś, Anna and Krzysztof Drozdowski, Świat odosobniony. Bydgoska służba penitencjarna w latach 1920–1939 (Poznań, Bydgoszcz, and Piotrków Trybunalski, 2017).
Maleszyk Ryszard, ‘Ranga zawodowa personelu więziennego w Polsce w latach 1918–1939’, in Jan Świtek, Małgorzata Kuć, and Iwona Niewiadomska (eds.), Autorytet i godność służb penitencjarnych a skuteczność metod resocjalizacji (Lublin, 2004), 65–80.
Migdał Jerzy, Polski system penitencjarny w latach 1918–1928 (Gdańsk, 2011).
Morris Norval and Rothman David J. (eds.), The Oxford History of the Prison. The Practice of Punishment in Western Society (New York and Oxford, 1998).
Ossibach-Budzyński Andrzej, Pawiak. Więzienie polityczne 1880–1915 (Warszawa, 2016).
Pawlak Karol, ‘Polska kadra penitencjarna’, in Nabór i szkolenie funkcjonariuszy Służby Więziennej w polskim systemie penitencjarnym. Diagnoza, ocena, prognoza. Materiały z konferencji, Kalisz 29–31 maj 1995 (Kalisz, 1995), 8–13.
Pawlak Karol, Więziennictwo polskie w latach 1918–1939 (Kalisz, 1995).
Rodak Mateusz, Pospolitacy, cuwaksi, powrotowcy. Osadzeni w Więzieniu Karnym Warszawa–Mokotów (1918–1939) (Warszawa, 2017).
Senkowska Monika, Kara więzienia w Królestwie Polskim w pierwszej połowie XIX wieku (Wrocław, Warszawa, and Kraków, 1961).
Rymaszewski Zygfryd, Czynności woźnego sądowego. Z badań nad funkcjonowaniem sądów prawa polskiego w średniowieczu (Warszawa, 2010).
Thomas James E., The English Prison Officer since 1850 (London, 1972).
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Title, logo and layout of journal are reserved trademarks of APH.Stats
Number of views and downloads: 408
Number of citations: 0