THE SYSTEM OF TRAINING HUNGARIAN PRISON STAFF WITH A SPECIAL ASPECT OF COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT

The most important challenge to human resources strategies at present and in the future -other than the continuous supply of human resource necessary to maintain lawful and unperturbed operation -is how to retain the active prison staff and how to consolidate and lay the foundations of their commitment to the organisation. Related to this one needs to ask what knowledge and competencies should prison staff acquire to be able to meet the complex system of requirements at entry, as well as in the long run, throughout their years in the profession. In our study we examine the process of training and continuous further training of punitive justice professionals in Hungary, the closed (inhouse) training system of punitive justice and the vocational training of officers not having a law enforcement degree. We attempt to pinpoint the methods applied during training courses that would be expedient to ensure that a well-trained, mentally healthy and stable team of professionals constitute the prison staff, securing the system's ability to achieve the goals stipulated by law working towards the social reintegration of the detainees. The objective of this paper is to scope and analyze the published literature and law in Hungary as it relates to the training and education of prison officers.