Prisons are for many an unknown world, and few know about the prison culture which includes unwritten rules, power structures, interactions and relationships between inmates and correctional employees. While many think that Swedish prisons are too comfortable,inmates are facing extreme stress due to surveillance and detention, by depriving inmates their possibility to shape their own lives. When the inmates is deprived of control over their own life’s the penal system have great power to shape and to influence the inmates. The purpose of this paper is to investigate prisoners' experiences of treatment and exercise of power in prisons. Starting point is to examine what are the kinds of relationships between prison officers and inmates from a power perspective, if there is any difference between the closed and open prisons and how the inmates affected by the structures that exist. Based on my overall purpose, and with my informant´s stories which revealed a number of similar points, four main headings were developed; Mass media and society´s view, and unknown world, interaction between inmates and prison officers and consequences. Prison officers with the role as a contact persons as well and other staff which work close to the inmates play a significant role by supporting through motivational interviewing and can help the inmates to gain insight about their life situation and actions. My informant’s underlined that a good contact person can either help or discourage. Inmates who contributed with their experiences express that there is a big difference between open-and closed prisons. They express that prison officers at a maximum security prison is more authoritarian and abuse their power more than prison officers at the open prisons. Some of the inmates have experienced disparaging attitudes and violations. . Throughout our lives there is a constant search for identity and confirmation, the treatment from the staff is very important for how the inmates perceive their time in prison, but it is also important for how the inmates is formed as people and how their self-image and identity are affected. Many in our society have a static and preconceived image of prisons and the people behind the bars and these structures and power games have consequences, the inmates starts to accept their role in the society.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-79772 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Beijar, Jessica |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för kultur- och medievetenskaper |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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