Risk and the indeterminate sentence: An interview and ethnography-based comparison of Norwegian and Danish practices

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

Abstract

Indeterminate sentences (’forvaring’) in Denmark and Norway share a range of similarities; they are experienced as confusing, psychologically demanding, and heavy. Based on interview data (N:50) with prisoners serving indeterminate sentences, I aim to shed light on the ways in which soft power plays out in these two otherwise similar jurisdictions. This paper thus illuminates the experiential texture of indeterminate imprisonment with a particular focus on tightness (Crewe 2011). Prisoners in both countries were essentially expected to prove in the present that they would not be risky in the future, but the degree of self-monitoring, and suspicion towards officers created a particularly distrustful climate in the Norwegian prisons. In Denmark, indeterminately sentenced prisoners also felt monitored by staff, but their main preoccupations were directed at staff at a higher level. Because of the ways in which power flowed in both jurisdictions, indeterminately sentenced prisoners in both countries shared a feeling of powerlessness in the face of psychological power as well as confusion and resentment about being subjected to a form of risk-thinking that felt vague or irrational.

Author

• Julie Laursen, University of Copenhagen