La Pedagogía Penitenciara en España: luces y sombras

Abstract

Applying an epistemological and legal approach, we present in this study the role of Pedagogy when interacting with prison insiders. This area has hardly been studied, both from the viewpoint of academic research and from the viewpoint of professional development. This results in almost nonexistent literature in the field of Penitentiary Pedagogy in the new curriculum of Pedagogy or in the scarcity of Ph.D dissertations on delinquency in general and on institutionalized delinquency in particular. We have started from the idea that the prison should be understood as an institution for educational assistance. Thus, we have analyzed the role of education linked to the very penitentiary legislation, which opens up a lot of possibilities, and more specifically, linked to the treatment of prisoners, but also considering the crime researchers’ approach, who recommend the adoption of an educational model when interacting in this environment, leaving other models aside. We state that, moving away from the nothing works doctrine in the rehabilitation of delinquents, which was promoted by Martinson in 1974, it is possible for effective pedagogy to intervene in this context. To this end, we have conducted an extensive review of the meta-analyzes carried out both at national and international level, showing there are effective programs and explaining the criteria that determine their success. We especially draw attention to one of these programs, the Prosocial Thinking Program, which has been applied to different populations in the Spanish context, from youngsters to prison insiders. Our conclusion is that, despite the legislative and research evidence, since prison reality proves the lack of an educational model when interacting in this complex environment, this situation inevitably leads to the lack of effective programs and to the reinforcement of the idea that the prison is still seen as a punishment by imprisonment.