Psychology Insight Justice

Across Europe, prisons concentrate not only social conflict but deep psychological suffering. With more than 11.5 million people incarcerated worldwide, correctional systems face a critical question: how to deal not only with criminal behavior, but with the inner worlds that produce it.

In Germany, studies show that between 50% and 75% of incarcerated individuals live with a diagnosable mental health disorder, while nearly 44% struggle with substance use disorders. Despite this, only about 1% of inmates receive psychotherapy, and suicide remains the leading cause of death in custody. The psychological cost of incarceration is high — and often unaddressed.
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Yet research confirms what practice already suggests: structured therapeutic work reduces recidivism. Cognitive-behavioral programs, when properly delivered, lower reoffending rates by 20–30%. Systems that invest in transformation — like Norway, where recidivism is around 20% — show far better outcomes than punitive models such as that of the United States, where the rate reaches 70–75%.
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Germany’s Sozialtherapeutische Anstalten — social-therapeutic prison units — represent a rare space where psychology is built into the architecture of justice. There, the goal is not just control, but reflection, accountability, and internal change.

To understand what this work looks like from within, Soul & Law spoke with Jana Terre, a licensed clinical psychologist with more than 13 years of experience in cognitive-behavioral therapy. She leads one of the social-therapeutic departments within the German prison system, where she combines scientific therapeutic approaches to reduce the risk of reoffending with integrative-informed psychological practice.

Her work focuses on offender accountability, emotional regulation, and resocialization after violence. Having worked with sexual offenders, domestic-violence abusers, and trauma-affected youth, she brings a unique understanding of the psychological mechanisms behind coercion, control, and recovery.

At Soul & Law, Jana explores how law and psychology can work together to create a more ethical, humane, and trauma-aware justice system — where conflict resolution serves not only society, but also the human soul.‍

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Soul & Law:
Jana, thank you for taking the time to speak with us — and for your openness in exploring such a psychologically and ethically complex field. To begin: could you share the key moments in your professional path? What led you to psychology, and how did you decide to work specifically with incarcerated individuals?

Jana Terre:
My path to psychology began in a medical environment: I studied psychology at a university based in a medical faculty, where the focus was deeply clinical and neurobiological. From the start, I wanted to understand not only the mind, but also the body’s role in trauma and emotional regulation.

Early in my career, I worked in a psychiatric hospital, where I learned what it means to hold space for acute human suffering. There, psychology wasn’t about theories but rather was about grounding, stability, and seeing a person behind the diagnosis.

Later, while working in a children’s home, I faced the long-term effects of emotional neglect and realized something essential: real change starts not with children, but with the adults who raise them. That experience made me shift my focus towards the root causes: family systems, attachment, and responsibility. 

From there, my path led to the correctional system, where I began working with incarcerated individuals. In that environment, all defenses are amplified to manipulation, denial, shame, however it’s also where you can witness real transformation if the right therapeutic conditions are provided. I learned how trauma, power, and guilt intertwine and how accountability can become a turning point rather than a punishment.

Today, also in my private practice, I work with high-functioning clients: entrepreneurs, leaders, professionals. This are the people who may have freedom externally, yet often live in inner constraint, perfectionism, and emotional isolation.

For me, psychology is not a profession! It’s a way of restoring connection: between reason and emotion, control and vulnerability, past and present. It’s about helping people find inner balance, the kind that doesn’t depend on external circumstances.

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«For me, psychology is not a profession! It’s a way of restoring connection: between reason and emotion, control and vulnerability, past and present»

Soul & Law:
While many psychologists focus exclusively on private practice, your work is deeply rooted in the social sphere — and specifically in one of its most stigmatized and challenging areas: working with individuals convicted of serious crimes. What drew you to this field, and why does it matter to you?

Jana Terre:
My main work takes place in a prison setting, but I also dedicate time for my private practice. For me, working in the social sphere is not about heroism, but it’s about honesty. I’ve always been drawn to places where human nature reveals itself completely without masks, without aesthetics and without comforting explanations. 

Prison is one of those places. It’s where psychology becomes absolutely real: nothing decorative, nothing theoretical. You see how trauma turns into aggression, how shame becomes control, and how pain transforms into violence.

And when you understand these mechanisms, you can help a person break the cycle not by justifying them, but by helping them take responsibility and choose differently.

Working with offenders is not about the crime, it’s about human limits: what happens when someone loses connection with themselves, with their emotions, with others. Any time awareness, empathy, or choice appears in that environment; that’s where the true meaning of my profession lives. 

In my private practice, I see the common dynamics, but in a different form. People may not be behind bars, however they are often imprisoned by control, guilt, or loneliness. That’s why I don’t separate the social sphere from private work for me, it’s the same mission: to help people reconnect with themselves, with others  and with life.
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«Working with offenders is not about the crime, it’s about human limits: what happens when someone loses connection with themselves, with their emotions, with others»

Soul & Law:
You’ve described your work not as a profession, but as a way of holding space for human complexity — often in its rawest form. Given the intensity of working in correctional environments — where pain, aggression, and manipulation are often present — were there ever moments when you questioned whether this was the right field for you?

Jana Terre:
Honestly, I never doubted the field, but I did doubt myself at times. There were moments when the work felt overwhelming: the weight of human pain, the manipulation, and the system itself. But every time I questioned it, I returned to the same truth, that I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.

Psychology, especially in correctional settings, constantly tests your boundaries. It asks: «Can you stay human when you are the target of manipulation and surrounded by aggression? »

Every time I manage to stay present. I can see the person behind the behavior, and it reminds me why I chose this path. So, doubt for me was never a sign to leave, but rather was a signal to deepen, to grow, and to refine how I hold space for others without losing myself.

Soul & Law:
In your previous interviews, you mentioned differences in how Germany approaches social therapy compared to more punitive systems. Could you elaborate on what makes the German model unique?

Jana Terre:
Germany’s approach to social therapy is built on a fundamentally different philosophy: the punishment already lies in the deprivation of freedom. Everything beyond that is aimed not at further punishment, but at resocialization and responsibility.

In Sozialtherapeutische Anstalten (social-therapeutic prisons), the goal is to help individuals understand and change the psychological and behavioral patterns that led to their crimes. The system integrates psychotherapy, education, and structured daily routines within smaller, community-like units that resemble real social environments.

The focus is not on control or fear, but on reflection, accountability, and personal growth. This is because sustainable change comes from insight, not from pain.

Soul & Law:
What kind of education, training, or preparation was most essential for you to feel ready for this work? 

Jana Terre:
For me, preparation for this work wasn’t only academic. It was both deeply personal and professional. I actually studied psychology twice at university: first in Russia and later again in Germany, which gave me both a cross-cultural and clinical foundation.

But beyond theory, what truly shaped me were supervision, continuous self-reflection, and psychological hygiene at the workplace. Working in a prison environment means constantly managing emotional intensity and moral complexity. Learning professional distance became essential in knowing how to stay empathic without becoming absorbed and how to understand human pain without losing your own stability.

That combination of solid education, supervision, and conscious self-care is what allows me to do this work with both clarity and compassion.

Soul & Law:
What patterns or commonalities do you observe in the backgrounds and psychological histories of those you work with?

Jana Terre:
Among the people I work with, there are often recurring patterns rooted in early relational trauma: experiences of neglect, emotional deprivation, or inconsistent attachment figures. Many grew up in environments where violence, instability, or shame were normalized, and where emotional needs were either ignored or punished. 

By the time they reach adulthood, these patterns often have evolved into distorted coping mechanisms: control, aggression, denial, or emotional disconnection. There’s usually a strong defense against vulnerability, but beneath it, a deep sense of fear, rejection, or worthlessness.

What’s striking is that, despite their histories, many of them still have a latent capacity for empathy and reflection. When given structure, respect, and therapeutic space, even those who once seemed unreachable can begin to reconnect with a more human, responsible part of themselves.

Soul & Law:
Our project Soul & Law explores how law and psychology can work together. From your perspective, how can psychological knowledge transform the legal system?

Jana Terre:
From my perspective, psychological knowledge brings depth to what the legal system often treats as surface level behavior. Law defines guilt and responsibility in formal terms, but psychology helps to understand the inner mechanisms of motivation, trauma, moral development, and the capacity for change.

When these perspectives work together, the focus can shift from “What punishment fits the crime?” to “What intervention prevents repetition?” Psychology can help courts and correctional institutions differentiate between risk and potential, design individualized rehabilitation plans, and train professionals in empathy without naivety. In this case, we can see both accountability and humanity.

At the same time, psychology plays a crucial role in supporting victims, helping them process trauma, and regain a sense of safety and agency. Through both offender rehabilitation and victim recovery, psychology contributes to a broader vision of restorative justice where the goal is not only punishment, but also healing and the restoration of fairness and balance in society.

Ideally, this collaboration between law and psychology should exist not only on paper, but in practice: reflected in real structures, real training, and real decision-making that value human change as much as legal order.

From a philosophical point of view, law and psychology are two languages describing the same human struggle: the search for order within chaos.

Law defines external boundaries; psychology explores the inner ones. When these two meets, something deeper becomes possible: not only control of behavior, but understanding of why it happens.

Punishment without reflection creates obedience, not change. Psychology introduces reflection: the space where a person begins to see their own motives, distortions, and pain. This is the beginning of accountability, not as fear of consequence, but as inner ownership of one’s choices.

If the legal system integrated psychological thinking more deeply, it could evolve from a structure that merely reacts to crime into one that prevents it by addressing emotional illiteracy, trauma, and social disconnection long before they turn into legal violations.

In this sense, psychology brings soul back into law by reminding us that justice is not only about guilt and punishment, but also about understanding, healing, and the possibility of becoming human again.

Soul & Law:
Are you familiar with approaches such as Restorative Justice or Therapeutic Jurisprudence? If so, what is your view on their impact on recidivism and rehabilitation?

Jana Terre:
Yes, I am familiar with both Restorative Justice and Therapeutic Jurisprudence, and I see them as essential evolutions in how we think about justice and responsibility.

In my view, their greatest strength lies in shifting the focus from mere punishment to accountability and restoration not only for the offender, but for the entire system of relationships that was damaged. True rehabilitation begins when a person stops seeing themselves as a passive object of the law and starts recognizing the real consequences of their actions on victims, on families, and on society.

Therapeutic Jurisprudence brings psychological awareness into the legal process. It teaches that every legal interaction from courtroom language to sentencing can either retraumatize or rehumanize. When applied with care, it helps cultivate internal responsibility rather than external compliance. 

At the same time, Restorative Justice reminds us that healing justice must include the voices of victims and survivors. Their protection and empowerment are not separate from rehabilitation; but rather they are part of it. It is only when accountability is paired with empathy that offenders are confronted with the human cost of their actions and real change becomes possible.

In this sense, both approaches create a bridge between justice and psychology: they invite not revenge, but reflection; not repetition, but transformation. And that, ultimately, is what reduces recidivism: the birth of conscience, not the fear of consequence.

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Soul & Law:
In your experience, what factors most often prevent people from successfully reintegrating into society after prison?

Jana Terre:
Many people leave prison having learned the “rules of behavior,” but not the mechanisms of their own mind. They may know what society expects, yet they don’t understand why they acted destructively in the first place and how denial, shame, and entitlement shaped their choices. Without that inner awareness, freedom becomes just a change of environment, not of consciousness.

Responsibility is not about saying “I’m sorry” or completing a program. It’s about learning to see oneself as the cause of consequences and to take control of one’s own life. I’ve seen men who had access to every form of therapy, education, and support still relapse because, deep inside, they continued to perceive themselves as victims of circumstances, not as authors of their lives.

One of my patients once said, “I’ve changed because now I know what to say in therapy.” But in reality, he hadn’t changed at all; he had simply learned the language of compliance. A few months after release, he reoffended. That moment was a painful reminder that no “humane” prison, no progressive system, can replace the inner act of taking responsibility.

Rehabilitation begins not with external conditions, but with a decision: “I want to understand myself and own what I create in this world.” Without that, even the most compassionate correctional system remains just another form of containment, not transformation.

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«Many people leave prison having learned the “rules of behavior,” but not the mechanisms of their own mind. They may know what society expects, yet they don’t understand why they acted destructively in the first place and how denial, shame, and entitlement shaped their choices. Without that inner awareness, freedom becomes just a change of environment, not of consciousness»

Soul & Law:
Are there any statistics or observations from your work or the German system on how social therapy affects reoffending rates?

Jana Terre:
The evaluations are hard to run in prison settings (ethical/legal barriers to randomization, low base rates requiring long follow-ups, heterogeneous programs and populations). German “benchmarking” papers explicitly note the methodological and legal obstacles to rigorous social-therapy evaluations. This is one reason why findings differ across sites and samples.

The international meta-analysis by Schmucker & Lösel (2015), restricted to methodologically sound studies and official recidivism outcomes, found sexual recidivism 10.1% in treated vs. 13.7% in untreated cohorts about a 26% relative reduction (OR = 1.41).

German reviews already indicated that some correctional treatments reduce reoffending, while purely educational programs alone showed little impact. An older meta-evaluation of social therapy by Lösel, Köferl & Weber (1987) also highlighted the evidence base and its limits.

My takeaway as a prison psychologist is that social therapy is most effective when it is delivered with RNR fidelity (right intensity for risk, criminogenic needs, responsivity), with treatment integrity, and when it cultivates internal responsibility in the client not mere compliance. Where those conditions are met, the pattern in the broader literature suggests meaningful reductions in reoffending; where they are not, effects can vanish behind the “brand name” of the program.

And yes, the concern remains: psychological work in custody is not a standardized production line. It’s an applied science practiced as an art, which is exactly why rigorous, comparable evaluation is both essential and unusually difficult

Soul & Law:
How do incarcerated individuals typically react to therapy? Is there initial skepticism, and does it change over time?

Jana Terre:
Incarcerated individuals usually enter therapy with a complex mix of hope, skepticism, and strategic caution.

Because participation in social therapy in Germany is voluntary, the initial motivation tends to be high. Many arrive with genuine curiosity, a wish to “do something different,” or at least to improve their standing within the system. Early sessions often show what I’d call instrumental motivation: they want to “show change” rather than feel it.

As therapy deepens, resistance and ambivalence appear. They start confronting guilt, trauma, shame, and the realization that change is not just about controlling impulses, but understanding the self and the inner logic behind destructive actions. This is the stage where some withdraw emotionally, others become defensive, and a few take the courageous step into real introspection.

Over time, when trust develops, many experiences what could be called a second motivation no longer external (for parole or progress), but internal: the wish to live differently, not merely appear different. In that phase, authentic therapeutic work begins.

However, paradoxically, as release approaches, trust often drops again. Fear of freedom, uncertainty about social reintegration, and loss of the structured environment can reactivate old defenses. Some distance themselves from the psychologist, fearing betrayal or judgment while others downplay their progress as a form of self-protection: “Better to expect failure than be disappointed.” 

So yes, there is initial enthusiasm, mid-process resistance, and late-stage anxiety. But beneath all these shifts lies the same core tension: the struggle between control and trust, between old survival strategies and the fragile possibility of self-responsibility.

Therapy in prison, therefore, is not linear growth. It’s a series of circles, each one testing whether the person can stay in contact with themselves when the stakes get real.

Soul & Law:
How do you balance empathy with professional boundaries in your work?

Jana Terre:
Balancing empathy and boundaries begin with inner work. You can’t hold others if you don’t know your own limits and triggers. In prison psychology, empathy means seeing the human behind the crime without romanticizing or excusing it. It’s the ability to stay open while staying grounded.

The therapy relies on clear structure, supervision, and the psychologist’s inner stability. My goal is to recognize the person’s potential for responsibility and growth, not just their pathology. So empathy is not softness, it’s clarity with humanity. Boundaries make it safe; empathy makes it real.

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Soul & Law:
Working with offenders can be emotionally challenging. What helps you maintain resilience and prevent burnout?

Jana Terre:
Working with offenders and with any deep human pain requires inner discipline more than emotional toughness. In both prison and private practice, I rely on a clear ethical framework that protects both sides. It includes clarity of boundaries (“I’ll walk with you, but not for you”), conscious neutrality (I neither judge nor merge), and respect for autonomy. I don’t lead people; I help them hear their own voice.

I’ve learned to stay present with chaos without rushing to “fix” it, to stay authentic but not fused, empathic but not rescuing.

Resilience, for me, grows from this professional distance from knowing where I end and the other person begins. It’s not detachment; it’s a mature presence.

Soul & Law:
How has this experience changed your understanding of justice and human nature?

Jana Terre:
This work changed my view of justice from punishment to conscious responsibility. Justice, for me, is no longer about guilt and retribution, but about helping a person face the truth of their actions and choose growth instead of denial.

It also changed how I see human nature not as good or bad, but as capable of both destruction and transformation. When awareness and empathy return, even those who once caused harm can begin to rebuild their humanity.

Soul & Law:
If there was one thing you wish the public understood about people in prison, what would it be?

Jana Terre:
I wish people understood that most individuals in prison are humans with deeply broken coping strategies.

Behind every crime there is a story of blindness: emotional, social, or moral. Many offenders never learned to regulate pain, shame, or fear so they acted it out. This doesn’t excuse their actions, but it explains the path that led there.

Punishment alone doesn’t rebuild conscience; understanding and accountability do. Real change starts when a person is finally seen not as a label, but as someone still capable of growth and responsible for it.

«I wish people understood that most individuals in prison are humans with deeply broken coping strategies»

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