The paper aims to provide theoretical justification of the concept of the so-called judicial social work. This seems rather necessary because the traditional idea and practice of offenders rehabilitation are in crisis, and the Polish penitentiary thought is in sure stagnation. Hence an urgent need to revive it by offering some new paradigms. In the author’s opinion, one o f the possible directions, to some extent alternative to traditional rehabilitation, is social work. This kind of influence on criminals is then analysed in two planes: that of good practice and as a test of its generalization to the level of a scientific theory. Basing on his earlier publications, the author then extends his vision of judicial social work by reference to the theory of social control proposed by T. Hirschi. Thus the paper links to the issues raised on the 4th Polish Penal Congress which took place on 22-24 November 2006 in the Main Training Centre of Prison Service in Kalisz, and is an original attempt to creating new paradigms of social work in justice.