Hungarian Prison Service

After the end of World War I and the Trianon Treaty the depression regarding penal issues deepened. Many discharged military officers were placed at the helm of prisons thus prison life became excessively militarized. Within the legal framework of the People’s Courts created in 1945 internment and forced labour became official punishments. During the years after World War II forced labour as penalty became reevalueated because of the country in ruins.
On 1 January 1951 Act II of 1950 on the Penal Code came into force erasing the punishment system of the Csemegi Code. The new regulation only new one type of custodial punishment: prison. The dismembered justice system flooded the prison system with inmates and these inmates had to be put to work. A full replacement of prison service staff took place and new staff members were recruited based on political loyalty. The staff and the inmates stood against each other as political enemies. The commanding motto placed in guard rooms expressed the sentiment of the age: “Don’t just guard them, hate them!” After 1950 the State Defence Authority took over prisons in which incarcerated victims of political terror suffered the darkest and most shameful years of the Hungarian penal administration. In March 1952 the prison system became part of the Ministry of the Interior. For central administration they have established the Hungarian Prison Service Headquarters.
The new age of Hungarian penal administration came with the “soft dictatorship” of the sixties, when Stalin-type politics were left behind. The two-faced justice system was still viciously prosecuting political enemies while in case of criminals who were workers reintegration was the main aim, but these policies were not implemented due to the lack of funds. From the seventies it became apparent that the state only allows changes that helped the continuity of operation.
The new Penal Code entering into force with Act IV of 1978 has introduced as a new institution the transitional group, which was supposed to reduce the personality-scaring effects of a long (over 5 years) prison sentence in a less strict regime. As new institutions, therapy groups for inmates with personality disorder was introduced as well.
By the mid-eighties the financial support on prison service staff was insignificant and many experts left the prison service because of the circumstances in the workplace. The state was forced to work on a long-term strategy. With regard to this, the 15-20 year long developmental concept of the prison service was created.