Face to face with prison. The vision of the prisoners about their conditions of custody and resocialization in a penitentiary

Abstract

This article aims to contribute to the discussion between two basic dimensions present in prison, the security regarding to the custody and the treatment regarding to the resocialization. This research explores how prisoners feel about their quality of life in the current prison, particularly in attention to each of these two dimensions. Based on Liebling’s questionnaire survey (MPQL) about quality of life in prison, we conducted interviews with 102 prisoners who serve their sentence in Sevilla II Prison. The key results show that prison’s better functionality, both in security/control and in treatment towards resocialization, especially from what the prisoners perceive, is strongly determined by the behavior and the relationships between prison staffs and prisoners.