Notes from the Czech Republic: Europe’s Need for Open Prisons
By Autumn Mozeliak and Carolyn Schrama
Jiřice prison village (Source: Czech Prison Service website)
Europe is often regarded as having an exemplary, humanising and rehabilitative approach within their incarceration systems. Although with lower recidivism rates compared to other continents, prison reform remains a necessity. Some European countries are struggling in particular to preserve this problem-free, almost illusory and unrealistic image of incarceration. Bulgaria has ignored orders by the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) to improve deplorable, unsanitary prison living conditions for several years. CPT further condemned the use of excessive force in Lithuanian prisons and solitary confinement for several years-long periods in France. Furthermore, the United Kingdom is criticised for its inhumanly overcrowded prisons. Meanwhile, other nations are taking exemplary steps towards an ‘open prison’ reform with fair, dignifying treatment of inmates and the appropriate goal of trouble-free reintegration into society.
Case study: JiRice prison, Czech Republic
In 2017, the Czech Republic launched a pilot open prison programme at a minimum-security prison in Jiřice. The prison was designed to emulate everyday life as a self-sustaining community in order to prepare those inside for life outside. At its first official opening, Jiřice cost close to 30 million crowns (€1.1 million) (which saved many state funds) and could maintain 32 individuals. By 2019 with having held 92 residents, the open prison reported record low recidivism rates of those who participated in the programme. Of reported, only 3 re-offended- a dramatic comparison to the standard 70% recidivism rate of other Czech prisons. Between 2017 and 2019, only 13 prisoners were transferred out of Jiřice to another prison in the Czech Republic for disciplinary issues mainly related to alcohol consumption.
Jiřice maintains a few unique components to prison life notable to its efficiency and success. For example, the open prison does not hold any guards. In fact, the only individuals the prisoners interact with are educators and psychologists. Participants of the programme also remain in boarding houses that emulate normal village homes to resemble ordinary life once released. Prison programme creator and organiser Hana Prokopová explained that the prison village homes were built with some help by the prisoner themselves. Simulating real-life residence can greatly benefit prisoners once released. Often the shift from the sameness of a typical prison facility to being ‘out in real life’ can be quite shocking, staggering the individual's potential to positive development outside of prison life.
Prisoners are also able to work outside of the prison and return back to the facility once they are relieved of their work duties. Many are reported as working in the automobile industry in a nearby town. Afterwards, prisoners complete their daily tasks when they choose to do so, such as gardening or taking care of their resident animals (llamas, roosters, kangaroos, deer and rabbits). Residents have also enjoyed making Christmas cookies around the holiday season in their simulated village homes, visiting their families and attending medical appointments with their own doctors. Selected residents may also participate in the prison’s dog training programme, where they are responsible for guide dogs’ initial 8-month obedience training before they are passed on to their next learning stages at guide dog school.
The Czech Prison Service writes that Jiřice “aims to reduce re-offending through an intensive individual approach to convicts. The main goal of the project is to prepare inmates for life in the community with a focus on their abilities and skills in assessing, planning and making decisions about everyday life tasks and issues. Professional treatment based on guidance and coaching enables inmates to carefully analyse an issue and search for ideal solutions to it – all with the support of professional staff members. Practice shows that in case an inmate can clearly define the problem and find an appropriate solution(s) himself, then he probably will be able to do so in real life after the release.”
Jiřice’s success has led the institution to make the TOP 5 prison of the 2022 Prison Achievement Award and plans for expanding the prison or adding other similar facilities around the nation are underway.
A Call for the Expansion of Open Prisons across Europe
Jiřice was inspired by the Norwegian open prison, Bastøy. Norway’s prisons have been applauded worldwide as leading in exemplary rehabilitation and humane treatment towards prisoners. Perhaps it has been also regarded as a Scandinavian dream unable to be replicated in other regions such as Central Europe. Despite this, it would appear that the implementation of the Open Prison model is proving to be increasingly successful in the Czech Republic.
Open prisons can additionally better serve nations such as Hungary, which currently suffers mass overcrowding within the prison system. According to the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC), Hungarian prisons were at a 107% occupancy rate with 19 thousand imprisoned by the end of 2022. Many of these prisoners are responsible for only non-violent and property related crimes like those in Jiřice, posing the ideal opportunity for the Hungarian prison system to shift such prisoners into much better suited circumstances.
Open prisons often only serve those with ‘low-criminal offences’ such as these property crimes. However many have yet to branch to include selected prisoners with violent criminal offences. Violent offenders especially may require this simulatory, therapeutic and problem/solution decision making approach, as hints of normalcy, psychological care and ‘practice’ operating within communities is even more necessary for prisoners with a violent past.
Notably, further research on open prisons is still necessary. As suggested by Marder, Lapouge, Garrihy and Brandon of Maynooth University, there can be elements of confusion by residents in open prisons while typically they allow ample autonomy, but still restrict possession of some personal items and require curfews and urine tests. Creating a ‘perfect open prison world’ proves challenging when finding a proper balance between autonomy, and personal and community safety. Further, Marder et al. express, “Questions remain as to the extent to which open prisons are experienced as empowering or disempowering, and as pro- or anti-therapeutic. The highly selective process of transfer to an open prison might result in the exclusion of those with the most complex needs from such institutions. For those that do move to open conditions, their experience likely depends on whether their prison has the resources to respond to their particular needs…”
Ultimately, European prison systems should closely analyse their needs for innovation and consider reconstruction of the typical ‘closed prison’ model if their desire is to reintegrate their residents into common society and not expect them to return. With proper resources, management and meticulous monitoring, this open prison model could be implemented into many prison systems throughout Europe as it has already demonstrated a lasting success in the rehabilitation of perpetrators into society and impressively low recidivism rates.
Further reading recommendations :
“Old-fashioned Nordic penal exceptionalism: the case of Iceland’s open prisons" by Francis Pakes
