수형자 교정교육의 현황과 개선방안

Abstract

The purpose of the correctional administration lies in returning the criminals detained in prisons to society as law-abiding citizens by correcting them. Generally speaking, therefore, correctional education is a general term of various educations performed in prisons as a means of achieving these objectives. From the rehabilitative ideal's perspective, correctional education means various devices evocative of offenders' morality and responsibility. Also, this term represents all educational activities of reforming the offenders who are deficient in social adaptability in order to correct their antisocial attitudes and to become normal and law-abiding citizens. Besides traditional correctional education such as schooling and religious education, the Korea Correctional Service of Ministry of Justice is enforcing various types of correctional education reflecting recent trends of restorative justice model in correctional service sector, including culture and arts education, horticultural therapy, bibliotherapy for common inmates and psychotherapy for sexual assault offenders behind bars. This paper introduces the current situation of correctional education enforcing in correctional facilities in Republic of Korea. Moreover, it examines the problems of current ongoing correctional education programs. The findings in this study suggests some alternatives for Korea's present correctional education systems so as to streamline them, such as reorganization of schooling system combined with halfway system to support employment of inmates, recruiting professionals and improving personnel management system as well as securing educational spaces to enforce new correctional education based on restorative justice ideology.