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.