To Örebro University

This paper explores emotional labour strategies among Swedish prison officers, and how these affect the emotional strain. Case studies of five Swedish prisons and a national survey of prison officers are used. Analysis indicates that prison officers perform complex emotional labour. Due to differences in subcultures and informal norms, the strategies officers use in managing their emotional display vary between wings and roles. Different strategies may also cause different kinds of emotional strain. Emotional surface acting may lead to cynicism and alienation tendencies, while deep acting may lead to stress and exhaustion.

The number of prisoners in Sweden categorized as drug abusers have increased substantially in the last 20 years according to the Swedish Prison and Probation Service (SPPS). Drug abusers are defined by SPPS as those who have used illicit drugs during the previous 12 months (Ekbom et al. 2006). In 1970 about 20 % of the prisoners could be classified as drug abusers, while they made up 28 % of the prison population in 1997 (Amilon and Edstedt 1998). In 2010 the number of prisoners with drug problems had risen to 60 % (Ekbom et al. 2011). One reason for this increase may be the sentencing policy.

In this chapter, we discuss changes in how Swedish prison officers experience their working conditions based on the results of a nationwide survey that was carried out on two occasions. 2009 and 2019. During the time that has elapsed between the first and second survey, a lot has happened in Sweden that has impacted on Swedish policy relatiing to crime and punishment, and also the working conditions experienced by prison officers. Growing violence and criminality in society has led to a continious ongoing competition between different political parties and camps towards tougher measures against crime. In prolongations of this "punitive turn", prison officers work tasks has increasingly changed in the direction of monitoring and security work at the expense of rehabilitative and motivational efforts. The result of our comparison between two populations of prison officers points to a substantially changed prison climate. At the same time, the organisational culture has become more homogeneous, but this has happened at the expense of a degradation of the occupational role of prison officers towards pure guardin and security work. Prisoin officer turnover is currently high in Sweden. People with aspirations to work with motivational and rehabilitative measures no longer seem to seek careers within the prison system, and those with long work experience do not expect development towards such work tasks at this point either.

This paper addresses the development of the prison officer occupation within two prison systems, often characterized as “penal welfare” systems, namely the Swedish and the Norwegian. Despite a common origin, the development in the last decades shows diverging tendencies. What are the signs of, and the strategies behind, this development? The paper is based on documents, interviews with key positioned persons in these organizations, and data from a recent research project. Results show that while the Norwegian prison officer training is developed towards a University degree, the Swedish one is shortened to 20 weeks and made more vocational. The Norwegian prison officer training is developing in accordance to a traditional professionalization strategy. The Swedish one is adjusted to security-differentiation of prisoners, and the running of treatment programs, and seems more aimed towards a kind of narrowed organizational skill. The Norwegian prison officer role has been developed close to prison research and with support of unions in a long-term perspective. The Swedish officer role suffers from political-level ad hoc-adjustments to public debate combined with short-termed cost savings inspired by New Public Management ideas.

Prison officers are a key group of civil servants in the criminal justice system. Based on a comparative study of the systems for vocationaleducation in Sweden and Norway, this article compares policies andstrategies for developing the prison officer occupation. Differencesin this domain are analysed against the backdrop of theories aboutprofessionalization and growing differences between these countriesconcerning the ends and means of prison policy in general. Datacome from interviews and documents collected in 2013–2014, aswell as a rereading of data from two earlier prison-research projects.Results show that Norway is adopting a strategy quite similar to theone behind the birth of the so-called welfare professions duringthe heyday of the social-democratic welfare state. In Sweden, thecontinuing division of labour is leading to enhanced skills amongsome specialized subgroups, such as security and programme staff,but a reduction in qualifications for the majority. The study should beof interest in relation to different strategies for developing the workof prison officers as well as of other categories of public servants.It points to growing differences between two welfare regimes thatused to be quite similar, not least concerning the prison policy field.

Nordic prison policy has a reputation of beingliberal and progressive with rehabilitative efforts in prisons in a centralposition. Anglophone researchers have characterized this as a “Nordicexceptionalism” in comparison with the ongoing “penal excess” in their own countries. However, there are several important differences in prison policy and practice between the Nordic countries. Prison officers (PO) are the key actors and by far the biggest occupational group transforming penal policy into daily prison practice. In Sweden and Norway the strategies for developing this group are very different. The aim of this paper is to compare and analyse these strategies and how they are implemented. It is based on documents, interviews with key actors in and above the prison organizations, and data from recent research projects. Results show that the Norwegian prison officer recruitment and training is developing very much in accordance with a traditional strategy for transforming this occupational group into a profession. The main actor behind this has been the prison institute for research and education. In Sweden on the other hand development seems to go towards routinization and de-skilling, and at best a kind of differentiated and narrowed organizational professionalism. The Swedish officer role suffers from political-level ad hoc-initiatives combined with cost savings, and investments in security and rehab-programs based on “evidence based practice” run by special expertise.

The article is based on a study of Swedish prison officers. We analyse two types of professional representations, that is, their collectively evolved knowledge. A point of departure is the existence of sub-cultural gaps between different groups of officers. Society’s contradictory aims with the prison system lead to a permanent dilemma in prison work between security and rehabilitation. This dilemma becomes evident in the professional representations studied. However, there are also some differences in relation to different sub-cultural belongings. In our analysis of how prison officers deal with the dilemma in everyday practice we develop three ideal types - the frustrated, the rigid and the flexible one.

AIMS: This article describes and analyses prisoners’ experiences of drug treatment in prison in four Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The article examines how prisoners experience drug treatment, control and sanctions as related to three main topics, namely motivation; the content of the measure and relations to staff; and control and sanctions.

METHODS & DATA: The article is based on data from twelve prisons, three in each of the four countries; 91 interviews with prisoners; and around six months of observation. The two main kinds of drug treatment measures are drug treatment units and day programmes.

RESULTS: Prisoners described several motives to participate in drug treatment measures: to leave drugs and crime; to renew relations with family and friends; to solve health problems; and to improve their prison conditions. Prisoners found that drug treatment measures offered possibilities to acquire new ways of being. Staff behaviour seemed to be more important to prisoners than the methods used, and some prisoners seemed more positive to staff involved with the drug treatment than to other staff. A surprising finding was the prisoners’ limited critique of controls and sanctions. We see this as embedded in the situation of being a prisoner, and also in relation to contexts outside prison.

CONCLUSION: In discussing their experiences in the treatment units, prisoners are not so concerned about the rehabilitative features or the controls and sanctions. They evaluate their present situation in light of a future, which is their real concern. This is in line with a main task for staff, which is to prepare prisoners for release. 

Over tha past 10 years drug treatment programmes have been exstensivly developed in Swedish prisons. Thsi article highlights how prison officers working in treatment wings think and act in relation to their professional role, their relations to the prisoners and the organisation of drug treatment within the prison.  Data consists of interviews and observations from three Swedish prisons in different security categories. The study examines the significance of secdurity categorie, overall prison-staff culture, treatment wing culture, inmate gender and the treatment role and officers work identity in the treatment wings. The ways in which prison officers think and act depends on how their professional roles are defined at the different prisons. Definitins differ in regard to views on addiction, preferences fo the ways in which treatment should be performed and organized and ideas about how ideal levels of staff-prisoner interaction are best accomplished within the treatment context.

This study addresses, in a Swedish sample, whether exposure to violence and/or crime during childhood, and mental health and/or behaviour problems as an adult, are overrepresented among young men and women who had a parent in prison at some time when they were a child. Results show that almost all the studied types of childhood victimization and adult problems were overrepresented, but verbal victimization, neglect, witnessing violence, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and depression were significantly overrepresented. Although the associations between having a parent in prison and childhood victimization as well as having mental health and behaviour problems are weak, these results indicate that it is important for practitioners who meet such children to be aware that they are more likely than other children not only to suffer from mental health and/or behaviour problems but also to have experienced violence and/or neglect.

Det finns mycket som tyder på att vi idag ser en kursändring i Kriminavårdens syn på kontaktmannaskap, den rehabiliterande uppgift i vardagsarbetet som kriminalvårdare haft sedan 1991. Vi skisserar här den utvecklingen och vad som kan ligga bakom den.

This article describes life in a drug-treatment wing (a prison therapeutic community) in a Swedish women’s prison, and aims to analyse prisoners’ and prison officers’ relations and identities, through observation field notes and interviews with staff and prisoners. The studied prison has a drug-treatment programme based on Twelve Step Facilitation Therapy, with external therapists. Within the treatment wing, prison officers are abandoning the traditional staff identity for one of ‘co-therapist’. The female prisoner-identity is initially that of the ‘traditional prisoner’, but is often replaced by other situational identities such as the ‘conscious addict’ and the ‘good group-member’. In cases of frustration and threats in the wing, the more traditional identities might temporarily be ‘re-activated’. This might be a source of confusion and inner conflict, especially for the prisoners.

In an era of increased incarceration of prisoners, there are still demands for prisoner rehabilitation. The eternal dilemma of safe custody and rehabilitative efforts to avoid re-conviction has shaped an increased specialisation into security-differentiated prisons, specialised wings and divided prison officer roles. In the case of Sweden, this threefold specialisation has reached a point where the occupational role is facing new problems and challenges. Drawing on results from a Swedish three-year research project, with five case-prisons and a nation-wide survey with 20 % of all prison officers, we argue that a specialization in the prisons creates new subcultures among prison officers with patterns overlapping individual attitudes, environmental conditions, as well as the traditional/non- traditional performances of the role. In the Swedish specialised wings correctional officers create representations of staff in other kinds of wings. In performing separate roles, either security/control or counselling/program management, they regard each others’ tasks as unimportant or less understandable. Different cultural patterns emerge in the prison context, where the professional representations, the emotional work and the use of formal rituals differ. While the specialisation might enrich the occupational role individually, the organisational changes also lead to work-place tensions and sub-cultural disintegration.

Prison officers is a complex occupation that deals with inmates at prisons daily, which includes encountering different emotional expressions. In this article we discuss how this emotional labour has changed over time. This is done by comparing data from two research projects (2009 and 2019). The results of such a comparison shows that prison officers feel that the emotional labour has become more tangible, and that the burden and fatigue that follows from this has become greater. At the same time, many prison officers experience few opportunities to recover from this type of strain during working hours. The development can be seen in the light of increased prison overcrowding but may also be linked to ideological and organizational changes within the Swedish Prison and Probation Services.

The emotional life in prisons has been described in popular literature in terms of horror and suffering, but the research literature on this topic is sparse and mostly produced in later decades. During this short time, emotion research concerning prisons has focussed on a prison reality under constant change and development. The development of prisons, which is influenced by increased security, technical monitoring, and risk governance but also by centralization, specialization, and efficiency demands, has deeply affected prison work. Not the least of these concerns is the emotional labour performed by the largest group of staff, the prison officers. How this labour is performed in each prison wing or unit is closely connected to the institutional framework, the subculture, and the relationships between officers and prisoners. The aim of this chapter is to describe and discuss the emotional labour of prison staff under today’s prevailing conditions of prison life and ongoing changes to prison systems. This is done with reference to research findings from several countries as well as data from our own Swedish research projects. Research and data on prison officer work will be analysed in the light of prison policy changes and organisational theory on the development of public organisations and by using the work of Hochschild and other social theorists.

Under senare år har säkerhetsfrågorna prioriterats kraftigt vid svenska fängelser. Men vad innebär denna skärpning av säkerhetsrutiner för verksamheten vid anstalterna? Och, vad innebär den för den yrkeskår som praktiskt ska genomföra svensk kriminalvård, dvs. vårdarna? I denna artikel fokuserar vi på hur kriminalvårdare tänker, känner och handlar i arbetet, hur deras yrkeskultur och yrkespraktik gestaltar sig, formas och utvecklas under dagens arbetsvillkor.

Aim: This article reviews the development in Sweden of prison-based drug treatment (PBDT) from the 1970s to the present situation.

Data: The data consists of committee reports, white papers, research reports and interviews with two senior managers from the Swedish Prison and Probation Services (SPPS).

Results: The 1970s and 1980s trials with milieu therapy in prisons were followed by the introduction of cognitive programmes in the 1990s. Due to the growing number of prisoners with drug problems, the Prison Anti-Drug Effort increased the number of places and programmes for drug treatment in prisons. As of 2000, the scientific evaluation of all prison-based drug treatment has been strongly emphasised. Drug control has increased since 2004, and the very concept of PBDT is now approached rather more rigorously and scientifically.

Conclusion: The SPPS programme evaluations are scientifically formed, but changes in practice are slow to emerge. The SPPS runs a more restricted policy compared to treatment outside, which leads to some evidence-based treatment methods being rejected. Also, PBDT is somewhat under threat by changes in the prisons' internal organisation with growing specialisation in different wings, as well as by the poor financial situation of the SPPS.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore whether young adults who had a parent in prison while growing up in Sweden are disadvantaged in terms of parental support, school well-being and functioning, and socioemotional and/or behavioral problems, compared to young adults whose parents were not in prison when they were a child.

Design/methodology/approach: Retrospective self-report information about parental imprisonment and childhood and adulthood welfare was collected from 2,500 Swedish young adults as part of the RESUME project. The 52 of these who had had a parent in prison during their childhood were compared to the young adults who had not had a parent in prison, by measuring differences concerning their family relations, school well-being, and well-being as adults, and the risk of some events occurring later in life.

Findings: Findings Having had a parent in prison was significantly related to feeling less loved during childhood, and having less contact and support from both parents during adulthood, in comparison with other young adults. In school they experienced lower well-being and were more often placed in special education than other children. They were at greater risk of not attending higher education, of planning or attempting suicide, and of being hospitalized for mental health problems than the rest of the young adults.

Research limitations/implications: Even taking into consideration the complexity of childhood conditions and the limitations of retrospective data, prison and social-services professionals should pay special attention to the fact that a child has a parent in prison.

Originality/value: This is a unique study of young adults' experiences of a childhood with parent in prison.

This article explores emotional labour strategies among Swedish prison officers, and shows how these affect their well-being. Case studies of five Swedish prisons and a national survey of prison officers are used. Analysis indicates that prison officers perform complex forms of emotional labour. Owing to differences in subcultures and informal norms, the strategies officers use in managing their displays of emotion vary between wings and roles. Different strategies may cause different kinds of emotional strain. So-called ‘surface acting’ may lead to cynicism and alienation, whereas ‘deep acting’ may lead to stress and exhaustion. Finally, the lack of opportunities for recovery is discussed.

Purpose: This study aims to analyze prisoners’ experiences of prison drug-treatment programs in Sweden. How do they describe their personal relationships with the prison staff and with other prisoners in the wings? How do they describe the social climate and the control in drug-treatment wings? How could differences between these wings be understood?

Design/methodology/approach: The data consist of observations and face-to-face interviews with male and female prisoners in three Swedish prison drug-treatment wings. Analytical concepts used are roles, relationships and rituals.

Findings: The prisoners’ relationships with prison officers seemed connected to what kinds of rituals the prisoners and staff engaged in. In all three treatment wings, the staff and prisoners were involved in natural rituals. This was most frequent in the women’s prison with a 12-step program. The prisoners were frustrated with control measures but were mainly positive to the measures as preventing drugs from coming into the wing.

Research limitations/implications: Only three prison wings, however in varying prisons, have been studied.

Originality/value: These results gives a useful prisoners’ perspective on the development of drug-prevention and treatment in different kinds of prisons.

Besides increased security measures and control, anti-drug treatment programs have dramatically expanded in Swedish prisons the last ten years. Today nearly 800 of the 5000 places in Swedish prisons are intended for anti-drug treatment. This paper addresses the institutional effects of this transition in the case of a women’s prison with a treatment wing. Data have been collected during 2012-2013 by documents, observations and interviews with staff and prisoners, as part of a Nordic research project. The prison has for many years run a 12-steps (AA/NA) program in one wing, with external full-time therapists running groups in the wing daily. Prison officers are actively participating in the groups. Preliminary findings indicate that the prison officer identity, as well as the prisoner identities, are challenged and changing in the treatment setting, while the borders to other wings arestrengthened. Within the treatment wing, prison officers are moving between the traditional prison officer role, and the role of ”co-therapist”, and this seems more awkward for the minority of male staff. The female prisoner identity is moving between the "Traditional Prisoner", the "Conscious Addict” and the "Good Friend", all depending on the situation. A conclusion is that this is an opportunity, but also a source to diffusion, for the prisoners.

With increasing numbers of prisoners, research on Swedish prison officers’ perceptions of management and support at work is warranted. Previous studies have mainly used a variable-centered approach, identifying several individual and organizational factors that influence prison staff's evaluation of their job. The present study adopted a person-centered approach, exploring the heterogeneity in a Swedish national sample of prison officers. Based on an extensive survey of the quality of prison job, 10 key predictors for overall prison regime evaluation were identified. Following latent class analysis, three distinct subgroups were discerned from the entire sample. Remarkably, a sizable subgroup with a relatively negative evaluation of the prison regime was observed. While most background covariates did not associate with the subgroup membership, prison officers who experienced violent or threatening incidents tended to report a negative evaluation of the prison regime. Intra-organizational social support, communication and loyalty are highlighted as key components of overall regime evaluation. Our findings suggest that enhancing collegial, management, and supervision support and communicative skills may increase prison officers’ job satisfaction. Beyond the organizational level of prisons, we also discussed the challenges that the Swedish prison system faces, along with the portrayal by social media of a violence-dominated environment.