A smiling prison without handcuffs and detention

In the erstwhile article I criticised Adam Bodnar's activities as Minister of Justice. Not even a 4th passed, and 1 of his right hands, Maria Ejchart, undertook a somewhat dusty subject of prison improvement – postulated, of course, in the left-liberal spirit, in which the individual is holiness.

‘Viceminister’ Sylvette

Maria Ejchart's CV is very akin to that of Adam Bodnar. She worked with the Helsinki Human Rights Foundation, from which de facto Public activity was begun by the Minister of Justice. Maria Ejchart besides co-founded the citizens' initiative Free Courts and the Justice Defence Committee, both of which were formed on the wave of protests related to "the defence of the regulation of law". Both are besides associated with the Association of Polish Judges IustitiaThe Batory Foundation or the Helsinki Human Rights Foundation.

The human rights ideology, the apologetics of the European Union and the opposition to sovereign demands are the common denominator of all the organisations mentioned above. In addition, Maria Ejchart, during Adam Bodnar's word of office as an RPO, was a associate of the Social Council of the Ombudsman. It is so a individual from the immediate surroundings of the current Minister of Justice. It is so clear that the "Vice Minister" meets all the requirements essential to effectively "restore democracy".

Maria Ejchart's thought for prison

In an interview given to the Republic of Poland, Maria Ejchart presented the principles of improvement of the Polish prison strategy planned by liberal lawyers filling positions in the left-liberal government^[1].

For Maria Ejchart, all prisoner is the weaker side of the state-citizen relationship, and all liberal is absolutely obliged to support the weaker side, regardless of the reasons that caused the individual to be prosecuted. This is well illustrated by the following quote: “Over the last fewer years, the intent of the punishment in Poland has been to keep criminals permanently isolated from society and a severe retaliation. However, the intent of punishment according to European standards, for almost 80 years, is to change prisoners. He is to return to a better society, and this must be worked on from the first day of his sentence, whether he is sentenced to 2 years, 5 years or 25 years."

It is worrying that the quote quoted above was Ejchart's consequence to the question of whether the release of 20,000 prisoners was not risky in her opinion. The answer to this, however, is the exchange and veiled accusation of the predecessors of penal populism – an analysis of the risks associated with specified an undertaking is not presented. After all, liberal-left politicians of any negative consequences of specified action will not feel much on their own – citizens will feel them, as in the case of uncontrolled migration.

Pathologies of Polish Prisons

As of March 15, 2024, the population of penal establishments in Poland is 88.75%. Contrary to your claims, the Polish deputy minister of prisons are so not radically overcrowded, but they are not beneficial to the state^[2]. Poland is at the forefront of European countries in terms of the number of prisons per 100,000 inhabitants^[3]What it says is that something in our legal and social strategy is wrong. The fact is that the strictness of the Polish justice strategy towards perpetrators of drug offences, while at the same time, frequently scandalous, mildness towards perpetrators of major crimes, is widely known.

According to SW statistics, the number of persons actually incarcerated in prison units is 74247, of whom 64845 are sentenced to imprisonment, while 8279 are the number of persons temporarily arrested^[4]. The Deputy Minister pointed out, in a sense, that temporary detention was misused in Poland – however, there was no proposal for a balanced and thoughtful change of state, even through training for judges or rational change of the criminal procedure.

The writer of the Republic of Poland, alternatively of the SW data, referred to the data of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture to find the overflow of Polish prisoners. This study identified a strict criminal policy related to prolonged imprisonment as an almost exclusive origin of the situation in the form of overcrowding of Polish prisoners^[5].

In the case of many offences referred to in the penal code, the application of alleged prison sentences, i.e. fines or restricted prison sentences, is acceptable. Whose side, then, is the responsibility and is Deputy Minister Ejchart trying to identify the real origin of the problem? Or is he looking for them where they are not, pursuing certain ideas about the background from which he originates?

In my opinion, the first choice should be to pay the fines, but only with respect to offences with low social harm. It is not justified to apply specified penalties to perpetrators of high-injury crimes – their perpetrators are so blatantly violating the legal order that it is in the interest of the community to isolate them and thus deter possible successors. Effective deterrence makes it unnecessary to rise and rehabilitate perpetrators of crimes – who should be rehabilitated if the crime was not committed, due to the fact that the perpetrator said it was not worth it?

It is better to apply the word of imprisonment for a longer period of time to less serious offenders than to force everyone to close for a short period of time, in partial separation from the degree of social harm committed.

Maria Ejchart besides critically referred to the cuffing of prisoners, pointing out that she had already had a “talk” with the CEO of the SW, ensuring that this practice would change. Handcuffs are a means of direct coercion especially by her combated environment – Adam Bodnar has already torpedoed the police for cuffing people carried in a police car or cuffing them “from behind”. Criticisms of police action against handcuffed farmers in the Ministry of Justice are missing – but is anyone else surprised?

How to fight recidivism?

Returning to crime is an crucial problem with which a firm fight must be taken, not necessarily the erstwhile power. However, this does not mean that the solutions proposed by the smiling ministers will destruct this problem – their courageous assumptions must be called into question.

The Norwegian Penitentiary strategy is glorified by lawyers specified as Adam Bodnar or Maria Ejchart, however, if certain aspects of it may seem prima facie favorable, and that is the crucial difficulty in reprising them on the ground of the Polish social order.

Maria Ejchart appears to have made a logical mistake in recognising the origin of the non-cause phenomenon as a cause, granting the meek conditions of punishment an exclusive credit in the low rate of return to the crime. A man always calculates business, including a criminal. Recidivism is frequently derived from the inability of a criminal to operate in the chaotic at a akin level to that provided by a criminal institution. It should be remembered that in certain environments, prison is simply a kind of social promotion. A comparison of the standard of living, which is guaranteed to a individual surviving on the loose in Norway with this in Poland, unfortunately, continues to be a disadvantage to our homeland, especially if we take into account the level of many public services.

A individual in prison besides has rather easy access to a doctor compared to an average Polish citizen who cannot afford services in private clinics. Thus, the image is complete, where the return to the crime can be due to mundane motivation of the convicted more profitable. In specified a situation, the rehabilitation has no chance of having an effect – the rehabilitated will not express their desire to submit to it due to the contradiction of the rehabilitation with the interests declared by him.

Stay back.

Maria Ejchart besides did not abandon the delegation of the First president of SN Małgorzata Manowska, the word of her “neossier” and the message that it was only the current power that “started to apply the law”.

Importantly, Małgorzata Manowska is simply a completely different situation than Julia Przyłębska in the TK – Prof. Manowska is 1 of the most outstanding Polish specialists in the field of civilian procedure, author of many publications and recognized authority among lawyers. To mention to it as a “neossier” and to compare it with those who owe promotions solely to the political-social connotations (let us not deceive ourselves, nor lacked one), is simply a insult. However, the revolution of the regulation of law does not take prisoners – who did not support Iustitiy, this is the enemy and there is no place for him in the institutions of the state. Unless he submits self-criticism and bows to the majesty of successive generations of human rights.

Conclusion

The murmuring announcements of the release of 20,000 inmates are devoid of preservation and the deficiency of any criticism among ministerial interlocutors. There are besides no voices raising the subject of how crucial the hazard to public safety is to specified action. 1 can conclude that the past of Polish politics is over, and from now on we will always live in a smiling, liberal Poland. In Poland, where there will be no criminals, not counting those who will commit criticism of authorities and NGOs friends, there will be no punishment of hatred speech and for them there will be no pity from Maria Ejchart. Just as it was not for handcuffed and carbonated farmers in Warsaw – there is no regulation of law for enemies of the regulation of law, whoever the power considers to be them at the moment.

^[1] M. Mikovsky, Maria Ejchart: Prisoners for cells will be 20,000 less., https://www.rp.pl/law-karne/art40007871-maria-ejchart-prison-in-target-bedzie-o-20-thousand-less (accessed: 18.03.2024).

^[2] Communication from the Prison Service on the population of criminal establishments and detention on 15.03.2024, www.sw.gov.pl/page/statistics, (accessed 18.03.2024).

^[3] statistic on crime, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Archive:Crime_statistics/en&oldid=146581, (accessed 19.03.2024).

^[4] Communication from the Prison Service on the population of prison units on 15.03.2024, www.sw.gov.pl/page/statistics, (accessed: 18.03.2024).

^[5]Council of Europe anti-torture Committee (CPT) publications study on Poland, https://www.coe.int/en/web/cpt//council-of-europe-anti-torture-committee-cpt-publishes-report-on-poland?fbclid=IwAR3zihbhRS7DpN_vgcV_p8sHXXo5ZOymkSycMoVPGs1zaEnAZ-dnm1Xho3M (accessed: 18.03.2024).

photo: X / @mariaejchart