Socio-educational support in penitentiary centers as a tool for social inclusion

Abstract

Entering a Penitentiary Center is a traumatic process for the person. But the time of deprivation of liberty, although initially not wanted, should be a time of change, which allows the inmate to achieve the social and civic competences that ensure a process of change in their identity, enabling a process of social integration according with the norm. The article that we present describes the process of accompaniment of the people who enter the Therapeutic and Educational Unit of the CP of Asturias, understanding as the accompaniment to the change each one of the phases of the internment.

The reception and joint planning of the process of change will be one of the main and outstanding spaces, since it must allow us to work correctly in a network that can improve its connection with the community. But accompaniment is not limited to action within the center, but during the transition to freedom it will be another of the key and delicate spaces to achieve the objectives of reintegration. The role of the peer group, surveillance officials, family members and entities is key in the transmission of prosocial-type values, enabling effective identity change processes. The incorporation of people deprived of liberty, through accompaniment, allows adapting and personalizing the change processes, making the work carried out in the Penitentiary Centers more effective.

What we present below is a qualitative study of the importance of the accompaniment process, as well as the key agents and processes that occur within a successful Penitentiary Center such as the model studied.