To Be and Not to Be: Adaptation, Ambivalence and Ambiguity in a Danish Prison

Malene Molding Nielsen

Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

DOI: 10.4236/aasoci.2012.22018                

Abstract

In a recent article on Scandinavian Exceptionalism, John Pratt urges that in era defined by a pre-occupation with penal excess, we need to explore what we can learn from the Scandinavian regimes characterized by low levels of imprisonment and exceptional prison conditions. This paper complements Pratt’s comparative historical work by scrutinizing the realities of people living and working inside one Scandinavian penal regime. It explores prisoners’ experiences of and adaption to institutional life focusing on implementation of security and order and the motivational and supportive work. It describes a thriving co-presence of bewildering realities where prisoners’ adaptation is defined by a straining uncertainty, ambiguity and ambivalence, and where moral divides are united in the Modus Vivendi of everyday life. In this context prisoners are expected to express regrets and aspire to reform by demonstrating they are morally on course and motivated to commence a life without crime. Instead prisoners mostly use the institutional reformative stimuli to pursue their own ends that are foreign to the system. The study describes a discrepancy between penal ideals and practices and suggests that penal realities as they are experienced from within may not match the level of exceptionalism that Pratt observes from the outside.

Keywords

Moral Complexity; Institutional Logic; Adaptation; Ambiguity; Ambivalence; Prison Life

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Borish, S. M. (1991). The Land of the Living. Nevada City, CA: Blue Dolphin.
[2]	Bosworth, M., & Carrabine, E. (2001). Reassessing resistance: Race, gender and sexuality in prison. Punishment and Society, 3, 501-515. doi:10.1177/14624740122228393
[3]	Clemmer, D. (1958). The prison community (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
[4]	Cohen, P. (1994). Self consciousness. An alternative anthro-pology of identity. London: Rutledge. doi:10.4324/9780203418987
[5]	Crawley, E., & Sparks, R. (2005). Older men in prison: Survival, coping and identity. In A. Liebling, & S. Maruna (Eds.), The effects of imprisonment (pp. 343-366). Portland, OR: Willan Publishing.
[6]	Crewe, B. (2009). Power, adaptation and social life in an English prison. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[7]	Crewe, B. (2007). Power, adaptation and resistance in a late-modern men’s prison. British Journal of Criminology, 47, 256-275. doi:10.1093/bjc/azl044
[8]	Crewe, B. (2005). The sociology of imprisonment. In Y. Jewkes (Ed.), Handbook on prisons (pp. 123-151). Portland, OR: Willan Publishing.
[9]	Christie, N. (2001). Kriminalitetskontrol som industri, p? vej mod gulag, vestlig stil. Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag.
[10]	de Certeau, M. (1984). The practice of everyday life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
[11]	Despret, V. (2004). The body we care for: Figures of anthropo-zoo- genesis. Body and Society, 10, 111-134. doi:10.1177/1357034X04042938
[12]	Einat, T. (2005). Soldiers, sausages and deep sea diving: Language, culture and coping in Israeli prisons. In A. Liebling, & S. Maruna (Eds.), The effects of imprisonment (pp. 285-306). Portland, OR: Willan Publishing.
[13]	Engbo, H. J. (2005). Straffuldbyrdelsesret. Copenhagen: Jurist OG ?konomforbundets Forlag.
[14]	Fler?rsaftale (2004). Agreement between the Danish government and the Danish folk party regarding the law of finance for 2004.
[15]	Garland, D. (1997). Governmentality and the problem of crime. Theoretical Criminology, 1, 173-214. doi:10.1177/1362480697001002002
[16]	Gieser, T. (2008). Embodiment, emotion and empathy. An-Thropological Theory, 8, 299-318.
[17]	Goffman, E. (1961). Asylums, essays on the social situation of mental patients and other inmates. London: Penguin Books.
[18]	Graunb?l, H. M. (2010) Retur: En nordisk unders?gelse af recidiv blandt klienter i Kriminalforsorgen. Oslo: Bjerch Trykkeri.
[19]	Harvey, J. (2005). Crossing the boundary: the transition of young adults into prison. In A. Liebling, & S. Maruna (Eds.), The Effects of Imprisonment (232-255). Portland, OR: Willan Publishing.
[20]	Hastrup, K. (2005). Towards a pragmatic enlightenment? Social Anthropology, 13, 133-149. doi:10.1017/S0964028205001199
[21]	Jackson, M. (1996). Things as they are. New directions in phenomenological anthropology. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
[22]	J?rvinen, M., & Mik-Meyer, N. (2003). At skabe en klient, institutionelle identiteter i social arbejde. Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag.
[23]	Kriminalforsorgen (DfK) (2000). The prison and probation service. Denmark: Ministry of justice.
[24]	Kristoffersen, R. (2010). Nordisk statistik for Kriminalomsorgen i Danmark, Finland, Island, Norge og Sverige. Kriminalomsorgens utdanningssenter KRUS.
[25]	Liebling, A. (1999). Prison suicide and prisoner coping. Crime and Justice, 26, 283-359. doi:10.1086/449299
[26]	Liebling, A., & Arnold, H. (2004). Prisons and their moral performances: A study of values, quality, and prison life. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[27]	Liebling, A., & Maruna, S. (2005). The effects of imprisonment. Portland, OR: Willan Publishing.
[28]	Mathiesen, T. (1965). The defences of the weak. A sociological study of a Norwegian correctional institution. London: Tavistock Publications.
[29]	Mol, A. (2002). The body multiple: Ontology in medical practice. London: Duke University Press.
[30]	Pratt, J. (2008). Scandinavian exceptionalism in an era of penal excess. British Journal of Criminology, 48, 119-137. doi:10.1093/bjc/azm072
[31]	Ministry of Justice (2006-2009). Redeg?relse om pr?vel?sladelse af d?mte i med f?r af straffelovens paragraph 40a—“noget for noget” i perioden fra den 1. april 2004 til den 31 marts 2005 [RoPaD]. Denmark: The Prison and Probations Service.
[32]	Rendtorff, J. D. (2004). F?nomenologien og dens betydning. In L. Fuglsang, & P. Olsen (Eds.), Videnskabsteori p? tv?rs af fagkulturer og paradigmer (277-306). Frederiksberg: Roskilde Universitetsforlag.
[33]	Sparks, R. J., & Bottoms, A. E. (1995). Legitimacy and order in prisons. The British Journal of Sociology, 46, 45-62. doi:10.2307/591622
[34]	Scharff Smith, P. (2003). Moralske hospitaler, det moderne f?ngselsv?sens gennembrud 1770-1870. Denmark: Forum.
[35]	Sykes, G. M. (1958). The society of captives. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
[36]	Uglevik, T., & Dullum, J. (1212). Penal exceptionalism? Nordic prison policy and practice. London: Routledge.