The Prison Environment in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Communication of Prisoners with Family Members
The Prison Environment in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Communication of Prisoners with Family Members

Summary/Abstract: With the declaration of the Covid-19 pandemic, penitentiary systems were faced with the problem of ensuring that prisoners could communicate with their families, while restrictive measures had to be applied to combat the spread of the Sars-Cov-2 virus and prevent the illness of prisoners and staff. New approaches to family communication were needed. The present study examines how this function of the penitentiary was carried out and the perceptions of the inmates regarding online communication under the conditions of limiting (in the alert state) and suspending (in the emergency state) visits of family members. The impact on the investigated group of the digital technology used in communication was another point of interest. The empirical research was conducted on a group of 85 (male) prison inmates who completed a questionnaire with closed and open questions. The results of the study show the benefits of communicating online with family (keeping in touch, simultaneous communication with several family members including children, access to images of the home, avoiding illness, etc.) but also the complaints (time allocated to online communication perceived as short, poor internet connection quality, issues related to ensuring privacy of communication, etc.). The pandemic has facilitated the prison's adoption of solutions to ensure communication with family, expanded the use of electronic technology and developed organisational capacity to respond to crisis situations.

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