Space and ethnic identification in a Danish prison

Abstract

Ethnicity has come to play an increasing role in contemporary Danish prison life. This development not only reflects the growing number of prisoners in Danish prisons with ethnic minority backgrounds. It also reflects changes in prison spatial policy and institutional classifications. Based on seven months of fieldwork in a Danish high security prison, we investigate how such changes at the institutional level and at the level of policy have affected prisoner’s everyday ethnic identifications. We focus especially on the way prisoners reinforce and essentialize ethnic differences by reference to institutional spatial divisions; particularly the division between regular wings and drug treatment wings. We find that ethnic Danish prisoners spending time in a treatment wing are often viewed as ‘soft’ and ‘weak’ by prisoners with ethnic minority backgrounds in regular wings, whereas these prisoners in regular wings are in turn perceived as troublemakers and chaotic by the ethnic Danish prisoners in drug treatment. We also show how ethnic categories are at times blurred in actual practice. We conclude by discussing the implication for policy and practice; especially, we debate whether new spatial prison policies may unintentionally partake in accentuating ethnic stereotypical thinking.

Framing and reframing drug ‘problems’ in prison spaces and populations

“…That is, although ethnic stereotypes are imported into prisons, they become highly intensified in this space because of how drug dealing and selling are organized and articulated inside. For instance, in our study we found that Danish prisoners spending time in a treatment wing were often viewed as 'soft' and' weak' by prisoners with ethnic minority backgrounds in regular wings, whereas these prisoners in regular wings were in turn perceived as troublemakers and chaotic by the ethnic Danish prisoners in drug treatment (Haller and Kolind, 2018). In short, the display of, for instance, a prestigious masculinity, street capital (Sandberg, 2008) and an entrepreneurial approach related to drug selling in prisons is on a daily basis negotiated along ethnic lines (Haller and Kolind, 2018).…”

“…For instance, in our study we found that Danish prisoners spending time in a treatment wing were often viewed as 'soft' and' weak' by prisoners with ethnic minority backgrounds in regular wings, whereas these prisoners in regular wings were in turn perceived as troublemakers and chaotic by the ethnic Danish prisoners in drug treatment (Haller and Kolind, 2018). In short, the display of, for instance, a prestigious masculinity, street capital (Sandberg, 2008) and an entrepreneurial approach related to drug selling in prisons is on a daily basis negotiated along ethnic lines (Haller and Kolind, 2018). In sum, drug dealing and drug taking play central roles in the forming of important social and personal identities in the prison.…”

Carceral Geographies from Inside Prison Gates: The Micro‐Politics of Everyday Racialisation

“…In his work on institutional racialisation in a county jail setting, Walker (2016) discusses how “racialisation varies from space to space”, providing the example of the trustee pod and church as “de‐racialised” spaces, which is similar to psychologists Mie Haller and Torsten Kolind (2018) for whom drug treatment wings and similar “soft” settings in a Danish prison blurs the ethnic divisions found among “harder” high security populations. Following these observations, we elaborate on several prison spaces, but begin by complicating the notion of the “church”, or worship environment as a de‐racialised site.…”

Pragmatic and Permeable Egalitarianism:

“…The second approach is closely associated with the works of Norwegian anthropologist Marianne Gullestad (1984). Her concept of 'egalitarian individualism' suggests that 'egalitarianism' is not a cultural 'thing', but rather a resource or constraint that guide everyday social interaction.…”

“…Rather than pointing out differences in status and standing between prisoners, our interviewees tended to insist that they were equal and the same. In order to make sense of this finding, which contrasts dominant accounts in the prison sociological literature, we engage with scholarship on the role and roots of egalitarianism in Norwegian society (Bendixen, Bringslid & Vike 2018;Gullestad 1984;Sakslind & Skarpenes 2014;Sakslind, Skarpenes & Hestholm 2018). Organizing the discussion around the concepts of 'egalitarian permeability'(how societal values of equality permeate prison walls), 'pragmatic egalitarianism' (how egalitarianism is pragmatically performed) and 'social labour' (the efforts mobilized to maintain an egalitarian prison environment), we will argue that the egalitarian culture of Norwegian (open) prisons are shaped by norms in the wider Norwegian society and the pragmatic choices prisoners make in order to cope socially in prison everyday life.…”