Introduction
Prison SMART is very renowned and well known in Poland. Since the start of Prison SMART in 1999, more than 7.000 prisoners in more than 56 prisons have followed the training. In total around 600 trainings have been conducted.
Prison SMART in Poland started in Przemysl when the first course was organized for prisoners younger than 24 years. The relationships between the participants of the first course and the staff working with the inmates (psychologists, educators, guards) became so positive that the Penitentiary Institution in Przemysl decided to set up a cooperation with Prison SMART and promptly recommended this course to other prisons. Many agreements with the directors of other prisons in different cities in Poland followed and new courses were organised. The breakthrough in this initial period was the signing of an agreement with the Central Board of Penitentiary Institutions and a range of important and valuable recommendations. This in turn opened the door for virtually all prisons in Poland as well as for the investigation centres for temporary detainees and the high security institutions for dangerous criminals, as in the prison in Radom. Also the first training for female prisoners took place in 2000 in Załęże Penitentiary Institution. Now Prison SMART has become part of regular treatments in places as Potulice, Fordon, Biała Podlaska, Warszawa–Mokotów, Wierzchów, Grudziądz, Wrocławek, and many others.
Prison SMART in Poland is expanding very quickly. Prison staff who have followed the program recommend it to other prisons. Even before one course has finished in one place, prison staff from other prisons are already calling to ask for the program to be organized in their working place too. Also the prisoners recommend the training to each other.
In 2009, Anetta Jaworska published a doctoral dissertation on Prison SMART under the title “Alternative Therapy in Penitentiary Resocialisation”.