Penal populism is a phenomenon that receives a lot of attention in the literature.Most often, however, it is being studied from a legal perspective, whereas political motivations and consequences of its application are frequently disregarded.In the article, I analyse in what way, to what extent, and for what purpose penal populism was utilised in Poland in 2007-2015. I argue that it has proven to be aneffective tool for conflict management, agenda-setting, and burying bad news
