DANISH PRSIONS - FALL 1991

 

            Prison life is very different in Denmark than it is in most prisons in America.  This was revealed in a field trip to Jyderup State Prison on September 25, 1991 by Whittier College students attending Denmark's International Studies Program in Copenhagen.

 

            In America, the major goal of prisons is punishment.  There is widespread belief that criminals should be punished for their crimes.  But a second goal of prisons is rehabilitation, to change prisoners into law-abiding citizens. Unfortunately, psychological research indicates that punishment is often the least effective way to change behavior.  So probation and community service are sometimes used instead of a prison sentence, and attempts are made to provide education, counselling, and job training within prisons.  However, funds for rehabilitation services are usually inadequate, and these services are the first to be cut when funding is reduced.

 

             In Denmark, the major emphasis of prisons is rehabilitation. Only 20% of prisoners are in "closed" prisons with guarded walls.  The remainder are in "open" prisons similar to Jyderup (pronounced yeu-ther-up).  There is no wall around Jyderup State Prison, only a wire fence which reminds prisoners of the boundary and keeps outsiders from wandering in.  Often the main gate is open, to allow delivery trucks and visitors to arrive, and there is no guard at the gate.  Escape would be easy, but prisoners rarely escape; they would be quickly found when they visited family and friends, and they would then be transferred to a closed prison. Indeed, the few prisoners who do escape usually turn themselves in.

 

             Prisoners are sometimes allowed to go home for a weekend furlough, and every weekend girlfriends, wives, and other family members are allowed to visit the prison.  Although visitors cannot stay overnight, they have privacy during the day.  This is true in closed prisons also, and as a result of this policy, rape is rare in Danish prisons.  To facilitate these conjugal visits, prisons are scattered around Denmark so that prisoners can be near their families.

 

             At Jyderup each prisoner has a private room, in a building that looks like a college dormitory.  There are no bars or cells.  The prisoners' rooms have locks, but each prisoner has his own key to protect his privacy and belongings. The property was originally a factory, then a vocational boarding school. When it became a prison in 1988, it pioneered in developing the following three features which have now been adopted by other open prisons as well:

 

             The first feature is Self-Responsibility.  In American prisons (and mental hospitals), meals, laundry, and other services are provided for inmates, who are allowed to make few decisions for themselves.  As a result, inmates become passive and dependent, and later have difficulty taking responsibility for themselves after they are released.  At Jyderup, inmates are given a living allowance which they use to buy food at the prison store, then cook and prepare their own meals (either individually or in self-arranged groups).  They are responsible for their own laundry as well.

 

             The second feature is Project Work.  Many prisoners are school dropouts, and do not respond any better to traditional classrooms in prison than did they outside.  In America, most prison work is pretty meaningless to the prisoners, except for some job training programs.  At Jyderup, prisoners voluntarily work on projects, for which they are paid.  The prisoners plan the projects, obtain instruction in skills needed for the projects, and follow through until the projects are completed.  One project was building a greenhouse.  Another was adding insulation to the prison gymnasium.  When possible, projects involve cooperation with community organizations, such as nature preservation or environmental protection.

 

            Prisoners initially unmotivated to work on projects are encouraged to join a Sports Project in which they develop athletic skills.  Others who would benefit from classroom instruction are allowed to attend classes in the community, or remedial elementary level classes in the prison.

 

S          The third feature is using All-Around Prison Officers. In American prisons, the inmates have most of their contact with guards who are responsible for security and discipline. They have less contact with teachers, social workers, and other professionals who provide positive experiences.  At Jyderup the functions of guard, social worker, and leisure time leader are combined in "all-around" prison officers, who try to provide positive interaction on a daily basis. They receive three years of training, and are backed up by other professionals on the prison staff.

 

            The prison officers carry no guns, and prisoners are allowed to use kitchen knives for food preparation.  This is true in the closed prisons as well.  If kitchen knives are missing, all prisoners are subject to strip-search, but this is usually avoided by returning the knife.  Strip-searches, which are dehumanizing to prisoners, are not routinely done as they are in many American prisons. In spite of these policies, or perhaps because of them, there is relatively little violence in Danish prisons.

 

            In general, Danish prisons try to treat prisoners with respect, in the hope of encouraging self-respect and self-responsibility.  To some Danes, and to many Americans, these prisons do not seem to be prisons at all.  Yet the inmates feel that they are prisoners, since their freedom to leave is restricted.  In fact, prisoners are even more aware of their loss of freedom in the open prisons than in the closed prisons, since they are constantly reminded of how near freedom is and must restrict their freedom themselves.

 

            Is the Danish prison system effective?  Some of the features of Jyderup are too new to tell how effective they will be in reducing future crime.  Danish prisons now have a recidivism (repeat-crime) rate of about 50%, which compares with rates ranging from 50-75% in America, depending on the type of crime.  Open prisons, which are less common in America, are much less expensive to operate than closed prisons.  As mentioned above, there is much less violence in Danish prisons.  On the other hand, Danish prisons do not have the overcrowding and racial conflicts that are characteristic of American prisons, and violence is less prevalent in Danish society.  Indeed, crime in general is less common in Denmark. Nonetheless, there are lessons to be learned from Jyderup State Prison.