(Re-)socialisation in the prison system

The aim of the prison system (§63 StGB) is to re-socialise mentally ill offenders, i.e. to reintegrate them into society. This inevitably leads to the question of what socialisation the inmates experience and how this is influenced. It is not only conscious therapeutic interventions that play a role here, but also the organisational setting. In addition, the socialising milieu is influenced to a not inconsiderable extent by the financial, legal and staffing conditions of the clinics as well as by the general public.

The focus of this study is therefore on the examination of psychiatric hospitals, taking into account all groups of people living and working there. In order to understand resocialisation as an organised process, we must learn to understand the perspectives of all those involved in this process.

The aim is to create for the first time an academically sound, overarching picture of the way in which the psychiatric hospitals function. On this basis, it will then be possible to systematically describe which factors have a positive and negative influence on "recovery and security", what works in practice, where systemic difficulties exist and how these can be overcome. The close contact and exchange with practitioners should ensure the relevance of the results.

In addition, the project aims to contribute to the sociology of total institutions and to the further development of contexture analysis.