Prison social work in Chile
Access and institutional context
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35295/sz.iisl.2830Keywords:
Social work, access to services, prisons, Chile, social reintegration, quality of lifeAbstract
Social work plays an important role in prison systems by connecting incarcerated people with services, programs, support networks, and preparation for release. Yet relatively little empirical evidence exists regarding the conditions associated with effective access to social workers during incarceration, particularly in Latin America. This article examines institutional and relational factors associated with access to social work in Chilean prisons. Data come from the Measuring Quality of Prison Life (MQPL) questionnaire administered to 1,159 sentenced individuals in 20 prisons distributed across Chile’s 16 regions. The primary analysis, based on 1,005 complete cases, shows positive associations between social-work access and access to psychology, attendance at prison school, support from prison staff, administrative responsiveness, and perceptions of making personal progress during incarceration; perceived prevalence of drug use is negatively associated with access. The OLS model explains approximately 53% of the variance (adjusted R² = .532). An ordered-logit robustness model reproduces the direction and statistical significance of all six associations. The findings suggest that access to social work does not occur in institutional isolation but is related to a broader ecology of services, relationships, and prison functioning. Implications for the organization of prison services in Chile and future comparative research are discussed.
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