This paper discusses the theoretical construct of social climate in prison within penal institutions whose significance was emphasised by R. H. Moos in many of his works. The social climate of a penal institution is defined as the totality of mutual relations between prisoners and as their relationship to the institution, taking into account the impact of environmental conditions on the internal situation in the penal institution. This approach radicalizes the individual-group-environment relation and the fundamental theoretical bases for this approach are mentioned (Murray, 1938; Proshansky et al. 1970; Moos, 1976). Measurement scales that concretize this theoretical construct and allow the quantification of its quality are presented. Studies show that the social climate of the penal institution is a real social entity and that different penal social climates have different effects on prisoners.
Keywords: prison community, social environment, situational variables, internal environment, external environment
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