The penal narratives of community sentence and the role of probation: The case of the Wrocław model of community service
| Author | Anna Matczak |
| DOI | 10.1177/2066220320976105 |
| Published date | 01 April 2021 |
| Date | 01 April 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Original Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/2066220320976105
European Journal of Probation
2021, Vol. 13(1) 72 –88
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/2066220320976105
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The penal narratives of
community sentence and the
role of probation: The case
of the Wrocław model of
community service
Anna Matczak
Hague University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
Abstract
This article draws on Robinson, McNeill and Maruna’s argument about the adaptability
of community sanctions and measures, observed through four distinctive penal
narratives, in order to shed light on the regional development of community service
in Wrocław, Poland. While the managerial adaptation of community sanctions is
underpinned by an inter-agency cooperation to fulfil the goals of the system, the
contemporary rehabilitation iteration has become a toolkit of measures predominantly
phrased around risk management, the reparative discourse seeks various means to
repair harm and the punitive orientation represents the turn to desert-based and
populist sentencing frameworks. In this article, the first three are reflected upon along
with the emerging, restorative adaptation of community sanctions. The last one is
added to expand on the findings of this author’s previous research, which suggests
the viability of the restorative orientation for community service in Poland. A brief
discussion of how punishment, probation and restorative justice can be reconciled is
followed by the introduction of Polish probation and the role of probation officers in
delivering community service in Poland. Although the penal narratives are visible in the
Wrocław model to different degrees and in various combinations, more research is
required to evaluate the viability of a progressive orientation to punishment during a
gradual optimisation of community orders.
Keywords
Community punishment, community service, Polish probation, restorative justice
Corresponding author:
Anna Matczak, Hague University of Applied Sciences, Johanna Westerdijkplein 75, 2501 EH Den Haag, The
Netherlands.
Email: a.matczak@hhs.nl
976105EJP0010.1177/2066220320976105European Journal of ProbationMatczak
2020
Original Article
Matczak 73
Introduction
This article aims at integrating three criminological concepts: punishment, probation and
restorative justice; although rarely present together, the recent developments on practical
grounds have forged an interesting alliance. This article looks at these concepts, in the
Polish context, which is still little known to the international audience and analyses their
practical operation through the case of the Wrocław model of community service. The
significant growth of community sanctions in Europe was observed by McNeill (2013)
as the outcome of an increasing public and political concern over the cost of imprison-
ment – the management and implementation of which has been gradually entrusted to
probation officers. Although the evolution of community sanctions and measures varied
in Europe and its increased use did not bring about the anticipated decrease of prison
populations (see Aebi et al., 2015), the interest in community sanctions has been growing
also due to its intrinsic value (see Yang, 2018) and the increasing range of measures that
go beyond traditionally rehabilitative options (see McNeill, 2013). As with any form of
punishment, community sanctions emerge within the ever-changing penal field and are
always moulded in a specific context. Robinson et al. (2012) argued that the survival of
community sanctions lies exactly in their potential to evolve or adapt to new realities and
their ability to manoeuvre through four penal narratives: managerial, punitive, rehabilita-
tive and reparative. In this article, the fifth, restorative reality, is added to expand on the
findings of this author’s previous research, which suggests the viability of the restorative
orientation for community service in Poland (Matczak, 2018). The first part of the article
will discuss how punishment, probation and restorative justice can be reconciled on theo-
retical grounds. The second part will introduce Polish probation and outline the nature of
the Polish community order. Then, the probation-led Wrocław model of community ser-
vice delivery will be discussed in light of the aforementioned penal realities, which inter-
estingly permeate its functioning.
Reconciling punishment, probation and restorative justice
Punishment is one of the most complex and dynamic criminological concepts to define,
due to the fact that it is ‘not only a reaction to crime but it is a social process with social
causes and social effects’ (Garland, 2012: 24). Punishment carries many purposes, justi-
fications and meanings, which, as argued by Canton (2007), are intrinsically conflicted
and contested and as a consequence create inherent tensions between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’
responses to wrongdoings. One way of analysing these consequences would be to draw
on Duff’s (2001) argument and investigate the punishment modes of inclusion or exclu-
sion, with the former being desired, as it leads to the notion of ‘criminal punishment as a
communicative, penitential process that aims to persuade offenders to recognize and
repent the wrongs they have done, to reform themselves, and so to reconcile themselves
with those they have wronged’ (Duff, 2001: 175). The effects of punishment are not
always equal to the intentions of the sentencing actors, as the essence of a punishment is
also shaped by the manner of its implementation and the experiences of the offender
(Canton, 2018). Walgrave (2004) says that it is the ‘mental location’ of the painfulness
that counts, and even if there is no intention to inflict pain, there must be an awareness of
the hardship of even reparative obligations by offenders.
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