Prisoners' Perceptions of Legitimacy of Prison Staff in Slovenia

This paper focuses on prisoners' perceptions of legitimacy of prison staff in Slovenian prisons and the influence of progressiveness of the prison regime on these perceptions. The purpose of the study is to identify those factors that influence prisoners' perceptions of legitimacy of the prison staff and to test different models of studying legitimacy in the post-socialist prison environment. Possible differences in prisoners' perceptions of legitimacy in different prison regimes in Slovenia will be explored. Results of regression analyses highlighted the fact that procedural justice, distributive justice, trust in authority, effectiveness of the prison staff, prison regime, age, relations with prisoners, relations with the prison staff, and obligation to obey, all predict prisoners' perceptions of legitimacy. Results of discriminant analysis revealed the differences between prisoners in open, semi-open, and closed departments. The implications of these findings are discussed in the conclusion.