COMPARISON OF PRISON POLICY IN REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA AND UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Primarna družbena predstava o zaporu je, da gre za neprivilegiran kraj, namen katerega je izvrševanje kazni za storjena kazniva dejanja in odvzem svobode obsojenim posameznikom. Predvsem je vizija modernih zaporov rehabilitacija in resocializacija posameznika, vendar pa se pojmovanje in dejansko izvrševanje teh modelov kaznovalne politike od države do države razlikuje. V diplomskem delu sta prikazana dva popolnoma različna kaznovalna sistema, ki tvorita karakterno popolnoma samosvojo zaporno politiko in sicer model, ki je uveljavljen v Združenih državah Amerike primerjam s karakteristiko zaporne politike v Sloveniji. ZDA se s svojo politiko koncentrirajo na boj proti kriminalu v smislu odstranitve kriminalnih posameznikov iz družbe, kar predstavlja začaran krog in popolnoma nekontrolirano masovno zapiranje. Takšen način opravičujejo s preprostim dejstvom, da se s tem varuje družba in zmanjšuje stopnja kriminala. Zastraševanje naj bi po takšni logiki, delovalo tako preventivno kot tudi vplivalo na možno povratništvo nekoga, ki je že storil kaznivo dejanje. Vendar pa gre ob vsem tem za dolge kazni, brez možnosti pogojnega izpusta, ter razmere, ki demotivirajo obsojence za kakršno koli rehabilitacijo in s svojimi strogimi pogoji ustvarjajo utopične razmere brez nekih smiselnih dosežkov. Slovenija po drugi strani stremi k poboljšanju obsojencev in se trudi približati življenje obsojencev v zaporu življenju zunaj zapora, kar jim omogoča mnoge privilegije in pa pozitivno spodbudo k boljšemu življenju. Bistvo zaporne kazni ter v tem smislu zasnovane zaporne politike je prevzgoja in poboljšanje posameznika. Takšen sistem zastraševanje zavrača. To vodi v zaporno politiko, ki je do obsojencev spoštljiva in poskuša življenje v zaporu približati zunanjemu svetu in ga na njih uspešno pripraviti. Diplomska naloga predstavlja na eni strani dvom v uspešnost sistema, ki je zgolj rehabilitativen ter ustvarja posledično zelo ugodne pogoje in na neki točki morda celo vzbuja dvom o obstoju pravične kazni z vidika žrtve ali s kaznivim dejanjem povzročene škode, na drugi strani pa dvom v kontradiktoren sistem ZDA, ki se koncentrira predvsem na retribucijo in se zanaša na model zastraševanja s strogo politiko, obsojence obravnava kot neprivilegiran in izločen del prebivalstva, z opravičilom, da gre za pravičen sistem in družbo, ki je tako obvarovana pred kriminalom. Gre za divergentnost zaporne politike dveh modernih kultur in tu se pojavlja skeptičnost v delovanju ene in druge zaporne politike. Diplomska naloga zato posuša komparativno in kritično prikazati značilnosti obeh in ob takšni primerjavi različnih značilnosti izpostaviti nek proporcionalen način izvrševanja zaporne kazni.Primary view of today’s society on prisons is that they are underprivileged facilities meant for enforcement of the punishment adjudged by courts of law for criminal offenses where convicts’ freedom of movement outside such facilities is taken away. Above all rehabilitation of individual prisoners represents visions of modern prisons. However, understanding and enforcing such vision of penal policy is different from country to country. This thesis presents two entirely different penal systems which both on their own form entirely unique prison policy. I have compared the model enforced within the United States of America (USA) with the characteristics of the prison policy enforced within republic of Slovenia. USA with its policy concentrates on the fight against criminal acts with great emphasis on extraction of criminal individuals out of society by putting them into prisons. Such policy represents a negative spiral with uncontrolled lock up of masses. Yet, this policy is excused with a simple fact stating it protects the society and reduces the criminal rates. In their view, intimidation factor should serve as a preventive method against criminals as well as affect criminals from recidivism. Nevertheless, such system basis on severe length of sentences without the possibility of parole in utopian conditions that demotivate convicts for any kind of rehabilitation, and create very little reasonable achievements. Slovenia on the other hand strives towards convicts’ improvement in all senses and tries to prepare convicts for life after prison. Such policy gives convicts many privileges and positively stimulates them to live a better life after serving time. The main emphasis of all sentences with serving time in prison, and entire prison policy in Slovenia is to reeducate and to mend individual convict’s ways. Such system rejects intimidation factors. It creates a prison policy respectful to all convicts and tries to bring the life outside of prisons closer to convicts, so they can easier adjust to the community. On one hand, this thesis raises reasonable doubts in the success of the system which is only focused on rehabilitation and creation of very favorable conditions within prisons, which at at some point questions the existence of the fair punishment itself. On the other hand, this thesis raises reasonable doubts in the contradictory system within the USA which concentrates mainly on retribution, relies on the model of intimidation, strict penal policy, and treats convicts as underprivileged, extracted part of the society. All of the above with an excuse that this is a fair system and fair society protected by criminal acts. Thesis presents prison policy differentiation of two modern western cultures and points out skepticism arising in functionality and success in both of them. With its research thesis applies constructive criticism and comparatively attempts to present attributes of both prison policies also in order to point out a possible proportional way to enforce prison sentence