Mariusz Snopek – doctor of social sciences, educator, deputy director for didactics at the Institute of Penitentiary Studies of the Academy of Justice. For many years a penitentiary specialist in the Opole Regional Prison Service, an expert witness of the Opole Regional Court. Author of three author’s monographs, two edited works, three co-edited works and about 40 scientific articles published in journals and monographs, both domestic and foreign.

Populariser of science, organiser of such undertakings as concerts of prison bands and theatrical performances within the walls of the mother university. He is the initiator and organiser of the exhibition ‘Effects of Prison Isolation’ presenting the products of convicts, both of a meliorative (paintings, sculptures poem, etc.) and pejorative dimension (tools for self-harm, tattooing, smuggling, etc.). The exhibition was presented in universities, museums and other educational establishments. All exhibits were obtained from penitentiary units and belong to Dr Snopek’s private collection.

His research interests are in the field of re-socialisation and penitentiary issues, in particular the pathologisation of human behaviour and the pejorative aspects of imprisonment. He researches such issues as the phenomenon of informal social stratification, psychosocial degradation, deprivation of needs conditioned by penitentiary isolation and defence mechanisms used in difficult situations resulting from incarceration, as well as body adornment and stigmatisation.