Penitentiary Tutors’ Activities with Muslims Prisoners. Between Uniformisation and Identity Shaping

Abstract

This article discusses securing the right to respect for one's own religion, identity, and culture. However, it confronts them with penitentiary practice in Polish organizational and legal conditions. There emerges an interesting space for analysing different tendencies to uniformize the conditions of punishment and protection of individualization. Not only are procedural issues involved, but, above all, the mentality and attitudes presented by penitentiary officers. The deliberations are focused on a kind of conflict between yielding under the demands of a different culture and the resistance of prison staff against respecting them. Presented conclusions are the results of field research among penitentiary officers in Poland, but they all start a discussion on the creation of penitentiary policy in this area, especially in countries with poor experience in working with Muslims.