(Un)Needed Supervision – A Report from Research among Officers of the Prison Service

Abstract

In the area of assistance professions, tools supporting the work of persons performing them are used – such a tool is supervision. The purpose of the research conducted among officers of the Prison Service was to learn views on supervision and the demand for it in this professional group. The main research problem is contained in the question: What are the views of Prison Service officers on the possibility of using supervision in their professional work? To this end, the diagnostic survey method, survey technique and proprietary questionnaire were used to gather views on supervision. The research involved 72 people from two penitentiary units. The obtained research results show that officers of the Prison Service have knowledge about supervision, indicate a number of its advantages, but also some limitations of this work tool. Just over a third of respondents expressed a desire to participate in supervision, which may raise some thought, given the nature of their work. Supervision, as pointed out by many respondents, is a concept that is often unknown at all (in particular in a group of guards), and thus raises some kind of fear and anxiety.