Professional motivation of officers starting work in prison

Abstract

The Prison Service is a disposable group, and the occupation of a prison officer is burdened with many difficulties resulting from the specificity of the institution’s environment, threats from prisoners, the job’s lowly-perceived prestige and lack of respect from the wider society. This raises the question of what motivations are guided by those who make the decision to join the service and to become involved in the prison system. The study presents the author’s own research on the structure of professional motivation conducted among newly- qualified officers in 2012 and 2017. In addition to the analysis of the intensity of motivation directions, comparisons were made between groups of officers adopted in 2012 and 2017, taking into account socio-economic changes occurring within five years, and especially changes to the pension act of officers in the uniformed services.