These basic treatment components include employment, education, cultural activities as well as sports activities, therapeutic measures, and keeping the inmates in touch with family members and the outside world. The polish penitentiary system treats its inmates as the main subjects of education programs implemented within the facilities. The educational aspect of imprisonment aims to teach inmates about legal order in order to keep them from re-offending in the future. Education is provided to inmates at all different levels, from primary school to university teachings. At the primary and junior high school level, education is compulsory, but pursuing education post the junior high level is optional. Inmates may also take vocational courses, which could possibly be free of charge. Prisoners who have no occupation, who will not be able to continue their occupation after incarceration, or who are under 21 years old are given first access to post-primary and vocational courses. Also, inmates who meet the universal public education requirements, behave properly, and do not pose a threat to them or society may pursue education outside correctional facilities. However, this program is at the inmate’s own expense, and is not offered to convicts with a life …show more content…
Being a member of the European Union, Poland does not have a death row. The heaviest sentence a convicted criminal can receive is a life sentence without parole. The European Union finds the death penalty inhuman and a serious infringement on human rights. Abolition of the death penalty is a pre-condition for a country’s’ admittance into the Union. Another large difference is the frequency of incarceration. The United States seems to use incarceration as the answer for everything. Every crime is punishable by prison sentence. Poland believes in a more correctional corrections system. Instead of just throwing everyone into prison no mater the crime, the Polish legal system looks to help. For example, in 2011 an amendment to Poland’s drug laws allowed prosecutors to send drug users and possessors into treatment, instead of incarceration. Prosecutors, instead of bringing the arrested persons through a trial or hearing process, can immediately refer them to a therapist or treatment center. They are treated more as a person with a drug problem, rather than a criminal. The head of the Polish Drug Policy Network, Agnieszka Sieniawska, believed the new system would be “quicker, cheaper, and more efficient” (Smith