Prison Food in Denmark: Normal Responsibility?

• In Event: Eating Humble Pie: Using Prison Food Narratives to Understand Incarceration

Abstract

This paper explores the character of Scandinavian corrections by exploring variation in the food systems in Danish prisons. On the one hand, the benevolent, rehabilitative character based on normalization and responsibility is enacted through a regime that supports prisoners’ autonomy by allowing them to shop and cook for themselves in circumstances that are not unlike community conditions. On the other hand, in remand centers, a centralized system of food that distributes food to prisoners in their cells is employed. In these restricted facilities prisoners have little opportunity to cook for themselves and rely on the food prepared in the central kitchen. Data about the prison food is collected during fieldwork and interviews with nine incarcerated women in Denmark. The analysis explores the grey areas between benevolence and punishment and seeks to better understand the extent to which food in Danish prison institutions actually reflects, or undermines, the central ideals of the Nordic welfare model. The analysis reveals that in spite of the Danish correctional system’s stated goals to promote normalization and responsibility, these food narratives suggest that the correctional food systems in the Danish remand centers, are far from normal as the prison assumes control over what individuals will eat.

Author

• Linda Kjaer Minke, University of Southern Denmark