Welfare and punishment: A longitudinal analysis of entry into and release from prisons in Norway

• In Event: The interconnections between prisons, risk, rehabilitation and welfare

Abstract

In Punishment and Welfare, David Garland (1985: viii) argued that “penal institutions are functionally, historically and ideologically conditioned by numerous other social relations and agencies, which are, in turn, supported and conditioned by the operation of penal institutions”. If we are to understand modern punishment, Garland contended, we must explore its relationship to welfare. The aim of this article is to follow this advice, by offering a qualitative and longitudinal analysis of people’s carceral journeys through the Norwegian prison system. The debates over the ‘Nordic exceptionalism’ thesis have highlighted the significance of the Nordic welfare states in sustaining more moderate and humane penal practices. However, the literature on the relationship between punishment and welfare in the Nordic context often lacks empirical specificity. By careful analysis of people’s subjective experiences over time – made possible by interviews with 45 men and women shortly after entering prison, shortly before leaving prison, and then in the community two-three months post-release – this article empirically interrogates the relationship between punishment and welfare. The longitudinal research design allows for an investigation of the interconnected influences of the prison and the welfare state on people’s lives – before, during and after imprisonment.

Author

• Kristian Mjåland, University of Agder