Thomas Ugelvik | Universitetet i Oslo (original) (raw)

Books by Thomas Ugelvik

This book draws on historical and cross-disciplinary studies to critically examine penal practice... more This book draws on historical and cross-disciplinary studies to critically examine penal practices in Scandinavia. The Nordic countries are often hailed by international observers as ‘model societies’, with egalitarian welfare policies, low rates of poverty, humane social policies and human rights oriented internal agendas. This book, however, paints a much more nuanced picture of the welfare policies, ideologies and social control in strong centralistic states. Based on extensive new empirical data, leading Nordic and international scholars discuss the relationship between prison conditions in Scandinavia and Scandinavian social policy more generally, and argue that it is not always liberating and constructive to be embraced by a powerful welfare state. This book is essential reading for researchers of state punishment in Scandinavia, and it is highly relevant for anyone interested in the ‘Nordic Model’ of social policy.

How can adult men retain their masculinity and sense of self when they, as prisoners, are given l... more How can adult men retain their masculinity and sense of self when they, as prisoners, are given less freedom than a child? This book shows how prisoners, through relentless creative entrepreneurship, are able to bend rules and 'fool the system', and thus reclaim their sense of both freedom and manhood.

Based on extensive ethnographic field work in Norway's largest prison, Ugelvik provides a compelling analysis of the relationship between forms of power, practices of resistance and prisoner subjectivity in everyday life in prison. The book reveals how prisoners turn themselves into active opponents of the prison regime, not passive objects of state power, through various methods including spatial transformations, food related resistance and self-repositioning. It also shows how resistance practices have profound effects on prisoners' ongoing renegotiation of subjectivity within the confines of the penal institution.

Mat er mer enn noe vi spiser; den er også tegn, og kan forstås som funksjonelle enheter i en kult... more Mat er mer enn noe vi spiser; den er også tegn, og kan forstås som funksjonelle enheter i en kulturell kommunikasjonsstruktur. Dette gjelder all mat. Selv den mest ordinære porsjon havregrøt kommuniserer noe om den personen som spiser, og knytter vedkommende til en større sammenheng; i havregrøtens tilfelle for eksempel det norske, sunne og ujålete.

Matens symbolske vekt gjør at den kan brukes som markør for annerledeshet og fellesskap. Måter grupper av mennesker spiser, hvordan de skaffer og tillager maten sin, hvordan de legger opp et måltid, gir muligheter til å skape intern likhet og ekstern forskjell - kort sagt skape gruppefølelse. Matpraksiser er altså ikke bare utslag av biologisk nødvendighet, mat markerer grensene mellom sosiale klasser, geografiske områder, nasjoner, kulturer, kjønn, livsstadier og religioner. Mat markerer skillet mellom hverdag og fest, viser oss årstidenes gang, og dermed tidens, og hvilken tid på dagen det er.

I denne boka serverer bidragsyterne - dyktige fagformidlere fra ulike fagområder - noen ganske uvanlige perspektiver på mat. Håkon Glørstad skriver om mat i steinalderen, Benjamin de
Carvalho om norsk matkultur. Marius Wulfsberg skriver om måltider i litteraturen, mens Runar Døving ser på lammets rolle i norsk mattradisjon. Thomas Ugelvik skriver om mat i norske fengsel, Iver B. Neumann om det diplomatiske måltidet, Knut Stene-Johansen om psykogastronomi, og deretter tar Thomas Hylland Eriksen oppvasken - og skriver om all maten vi kaster.

Hvordan skaper fanger i fengsel seg friområder, og hvordan opprettholdes de? Og hvordan lager de ... more Hvordan skaper fanger i fengsel seg friområder, og hvordan opprettholdes de? Og hvordan lager de seg det som er kalt et "eget rom", en arena for individualitet, innenfor en institusjon og et system som i tar utgangspunkt i at alle fanger, som fanger, er like?

Boken handler om det sammenflettede og gjensidig avhengige forholdet mellom makt og frihet. Den er en analyse av hvordan mennesker, konkret og i praksis, forholder seg, tenker, føler og reagerer i møte med makt, og hvilke konsekvenser det får for dem. Med utgangspunkt i et feltarbeid i et norsk mannsfengsel, viser forfatteren hvordan fanger forholder seg i møte med fengselet som en form for maktteknologi. Spørsmålet er hvordan fangene, innenfor de rammene en fengselsavdeling gir, anlegger seg friområder, finner frem til og utforsker skjulte fluktruter og gjør kreativ og produktiv motstand mot dagliglivets rutinemessige maktformer i fengselet. Boken er slik sett en studie av frihetens muligheter, former og resultater i konteksten frihetsberøvelse i fengsel. Den viser hvordan det er et mål for fangene å gjøre seg selv til noe annet eller mer enn "en fange". Gjennom ulike strategier utfordrer, omformer og modifiserer de den fangestatusen de tilskrives av fengselet og samfunnet rundt. Hvordan ulike motstandshandlinger inngår i dette forhandlingsarbeidet er bokens tema.

In the growing field of comparative criminal justice, the Nordic countries are regularly used as ... more In the growing field of comparative criminal justice, the Nordic countries are regularly used as exceptions to the global move towards growing rates of imprisonment and tougher, less welfare-oriented crime-control policies.

Why are the Nordic penal institutions viewed as so ‘different’ from a non-Nordic vantage point? Are Nordic prisons and penal policies in fact positive exceptions to the general rule? If they are, what exactly are the exceptional qualities, and why are the Nordic societies lucky enough to have them? Are there important overlooked examples of Nordic ‘bad practice’ in the penal area? Could there be a specifically Nordic way of doing prison research, contributing to the gap between internal and external perspectives?

In considering – among others – the above questions, this book explores and discusses the Nordic jurisdictions as contexts for the specific penal policies and practices that may or may not be described as exceptional.

Written by leading prison scholars from the Nordic countries as well as selected researchers from the English-speaking world ‘looking in’, this book will be particularly useful for students of criminology and practitioners across the Nordic countries, but also of relevance in a wider geographical context.

Papers by Thomas Ugelvik

The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice

Our aim in this conceptual article is to theoretically reimagine the concept of ‘healthy prisons’... more Our aim in this conceptual article is to theoretically reimagine the concept of ‘healthy prisons’ in a way that more thoroughly grounds it in the everyday experiences of prisoners. Our point of departure is the observation that there seems to be an intriguing conceptual and theoretical overlap between first‐person oriented empirical studies of two spheres of human experience that are normally seen as separate: serious illness and imprisonment. Our analysis leads us to reimagine the term ‘healthy prisons’ in a way that increases its usefulness for anyone interested in making prisons healthier and more constructive and reinventive institutions.

SSRN Electronic Journal

Published in Power and pain in the modern prison: The society of captives revisited. Ben Crewe, A... more Published in Power and pain in the modern prison: The society of captives revisited. Ben Crewe, Andrew Goldsmith and Mark Halsey (eds), Oxford University Press, 2022.

Theoretical Criminology, 2019

In most jurisdictions, immigration detention centres are seen as an important part of the immigra... more In most jurisdictions, immigration detention centres are seen as an important part of the immigration control system. Research suggests that stressful waiting and the experience of uncertainty are common at such institutions. However, few empirical studies show how detainees manage these matters. In this article, we draw on fieldwork conducted at the only detention centre in Norway. Detainees described their situation as frustrating and emotionally challenging; and we show how they as a response developed a set of coping techniques aimed at ‘making their own time’. The most important were: (1) living in ‘slow motion’; (2) censorious attacks directed at the institution to break the monotony; (3) the use of benzodiazepines to regulate the perception of time; and (4) religious practices to connect the present with the future. We conclude that when investigating coping- and resistance strategies, we should not overlook the temporal aspects of them and their implications.

Power and Pain in the Modern Prison

Sykes’s The Society of Captives is an undisputable classic. It can be said to have spawned a whol... more Sykes’s The Society of Captives is an undisputable classic. It can be said to have spawned a whole penological tradition of studies of the phenomenology of imprisonment. It has also been hugely influential internationally, including in Norway where criminology students have been assigned Sykes’s book at least since the 1980s. In this chapter, I look at how Norwegian criminologists have read and used Sykes’s classic text as part of their own research. I discuss why some parts of the book have been referred to extensively while other parts seem to have been mostly ignored by Norwegian scholars, and I show how selective interpretation of some of Sykes’s key terms (one might even say “misinterpretation”) have contributed to this lopsided focus.

The Encyclopedia of Corrections

Nordic Journal of Criminology

Narrative Criminology, 2015

BACKGROUND A large proportion of the prison population experiences substance use disorders (SUDs)... more BACKGROUND A large proportion of the prison population experiences substance use disorders (SUDs), which are associated with poor physical and mental health, social marginalization, and economic disadvantage. Despite the global situation characterized by the incarceration of large numbers of people with SUD and the health problems associated with SUD, people in prison are underrepresented in public health research. OBJECTIVE The overall objective of the PriSUD (Diagnosing and Treating Substance Use Disorders in Prison)-Nordic project is to develop new knowledge that will contribute to better mental and physical health, improved quality of life, and better life expectancies among people with SUD in prison. METHODS PriSUD-Nordic is based on a multidisciplinary mixed method approach, including the methodological perspectives of both quantitative and qualitative methods. The qualitative part includes ethnographic fieldwork and semistructured interviews. The quantitative part is a regist...

Norsk sosiologisk tidsskrift, 2019

Kritisk juss, 2017

demokratisk triumf. Reaksjonene lot ikke vente på seg. Kritikerne mener at flatskjermfjernsyn og ... more demokratisk triumf. Reaksjonene lot ikke vente på seg. Kritikerne mener at flatskjermfjernsyn og flislagt bad på hver celle gjør at den nyåpnede institusjonen minner om et femstjerners hotell for mordere og voldtektsmenn. Når er et fengsel som et hotell? På hvilke måter minner hoteller om fengsler? Og hva skjer om man sammenligner? 1 Forfatteren er for tiden gjennomføringsstipendiat ved Institutt for kriminologi og rettssosiologi, Universitetet i Oslo. Han leverte sommeren 2010 sin ph.d.-avhandling om makt og motstand i hverdagslivet i fengsel.

The Encyclopedia of Corrections, 2017

The Emerald Handbook of Narrative Criminology, 2019

This chapter explores the intersections between narrative criminology and material culture studie... more This chapter explores the intersections between narrative criminology and material culture studies using a single object – my wife’s old Nazi rifle – as an example. It describes the various connections between the stories we tell and the things that surround us, including the stories objects represent, the stories they may prompt us to tell, the stories we tell using objects as props, and the stories our material objects tell about us their owners or users. An object will always tell stories about past, present and future use. This is true of all objects, not just old Nazi rifles, but some things will carry more narrative potential than others. Finally, I ask whether some narratively loaded objects may anticipate or perhaps even precipitate certain actions. Is it true that some objects sometimes ask us to put them to use? The Emerald Handbook of Narrative Criminology (2019), J Fleetwood, L Presser, S Sandberg & T Ugelvik (eds), Emerald.

Justice and Security in the 21st Century, 2012

This chapter has three purposes. First, I will discuss what a prison is and is supposed to be in ... more This chapter has three purposes. First, I will discuss what a prison is and is supposed to be in the welfare state context of contemporary Norway. Second, and drawing on Louis Althusser (1971) concept of interpellation, Michel Foucault’s (2000c) take on the subject as connected to forms of power and resistance to power, and Giorgio Agambens (2000, 2010) writings on the homo sacer, I will discuss the significance of the new Norwegian policy of dividing prisoners in two broad categories based on citizenship. As a “system of differentiation” (Foucault 2000c) thus employed, one might say that Halden prison signals a shift in the official Norwegian way of giving priority to the values of justice and security. At the moment Halden prison started making the distinction between different kinds of prisons with different clienteles, the prison as a particular institution was connected to a more general social process where an optic of exclusion creates two different categories of prisoners positioned differently vis-a-vis the state. Third, I will give a few examples of strategies employed by the outsider-prisoners in Oslo prison when they adapt to and resist the way they experience, qua both prisoners and foreigners, being positioned on or beyond the margins of the general society of Norwegians on the other side of the prison walls. The overarching issue is this: What happens when the prison as a specific form of social technology, in the context of a Scandinavian welfare state with its ideal of prisoner rehabilitation, meets the growing numbers of foreign outsider-prisoners awaiting deportation?

Gresham Sykes and Sheldon Messinger (1960) call this moral culture the “inmate code.” The code is... more Gresham Sykes and Sheldon Messinger (1960) call this moral culture the “inmate code.” The code is an informal set of values and norms used among prisoners as a guide to appropriate behaviour. One of the tenets calls for prisoners to "be sharp," meaning that they should never, under any circumstances, side with or show respect for prison officers and their allies. This puts into place a symbolic demarcation separating prisoners on one side, and prison officials on the other, structuring everything that goes on in a prison, including what the system is and how it works. According to the inmate code, prisoners and prison officers are radically different and never the twain shall meet. In focus in this chapter are remand or pre-trial prisoners, whose social location within the prison not only influences their lives in prison, but also informs their construction of the system, an object of continual concern to them.

This book draws on historical and cross-disciplinary studies to critically examine penal practice... more This book draws on historical and cross-disciplinary studies to critically examine penal practices in Scandinavia. The Nordic countries are often hailed by international observers as ‘model societies’, with egalitarian welfare policies, low rates of poverty, humane social policies and human rights oriented internal agendas. This book, however, paints a much more nuanced picture of the welfare policies, ideologies and social control in strong centralistic states. Based on extensive new empirical data, leading Nordic and international scholars discuss the relationship between prison conditions in Scandinavia and Scandinavian social policy more generally, and argue that it is not always liberating and constructive to be embraced by a powerful welfare state. This book is essential reading for researchers of state punishment in Scandinavia, and it is highly relevant for anyone interested in the ‘Nordic Model’ of social policy.

How can adult men retain their masculinity and sense of self when they, as prisoners, are given l... more How can adult men retain their masculinity and sense of self when they, as prisoners, are given less freedom than a child? This book shows how prisoners, through relentless creative entrepreneurship, are able to bend rules and 'fool the system', and thus reclaim their sense of both freedom and manhood.

Based on extensive ethnographic field work in Norway's largest prison, Ugelvik provides a compelling analysis of the relationship between forms of power, practices of resistance and prisoner subjectivity in everyday life in prison. The book reveals how prisoners turn themselves into active opponents of the prison regime, not passive objects of state power, through various methods including spatial transformations, food related resistance and self-repositioning. It also shows how resistance practices have profound effects on prisoners' ongoing renegotiation of subjectivity within the confines of the penal institution.

Mat er mer enn noe vi spiser; den er også tegn, og kan forstås som funksjonelle enheter i en kult... more Mat er mer enn noe vi spiser; den er også tegn, og kan forstås som funksjonelle enheter i en kulturell kommunikasjonsstruktur. Dette gjelder all mat. Selv den mest ordinære porsjon havregrøt kommuniserer noe om den personen som spiser, og knytter vedkommende til en større sammenheng; i havregrøtens tilfelle for eksempel det norske, sunne og ujålete.

Matens symbolske vekt gjør at den kan brukes som markør for annerledeshet og fellesskap. Måter grupper av mennesker spiser, hvordan de skaffer og tillager maten sin, hvordan de legger opp et måltid, gir muligheter til å skape intern likhet og ekstern forskjell - kort sagt skape gruppefølelse. Matpraksiser er altså ikke bare utslag av biologisk nødvendighet, mat markerer grensene mellom sosiale klasser, geografiske områder, nasjoner, kulturer, kjønn, livsstadier og religioner. Mat markerer skillet mellom hverdag og fest, viser oss årstidenes gang, og dermed tidens, og hvilken tid på dagen det er.

I denne boka serverer bidragsyterne - dyktige fagformidlere fra ulike fagområder - noen ganske uvanlige perspektiver på mat. Håkon Glørstad skriver om mat i steinalderen, Benjamin de
Carvalho om norsk matkultur. Marius Wulfsberg skriver om måltider i litteraturen, mens Runar Døving ser på lammets rolle i norsk mattradisjon. Thomas Ugelvik skriver om mat i norske fengsel, Iver B. Neumann om det diplomatiske måltidet, Knut Stene-Johansen om psykogastronomi, og deretter tar Thomas Hylland Eriksen oppvasken - og skriver om all maten vi kaster.

Hvordan skaper fanger i fengsel seg friområder, og hvordan opprettholdes de? Og hvordan lager de ... more Hvordan skaper fanger i fengsel seg friområder, og hvordan opprettholdes de? Og hvordan lager de seg det som er kalt et "eget rom", en arena for individualitet, innenfor en institusjon og et system som i tar utgangspunkt i at alle fanger, som fanger, er like?

Boken handler om det sammenflettede og gjensidig avhengige forholdet mellom makt og frihet. Den er en analyse av hvordan mennesker, konkret og i praksis, forholder seg, tenker, føler og reagerer i møte med makt, og hvilke konsekvenser det får for dem. Med utgangspunkt i et feltarbeid i et norsk mannsfengsel, viser forfatteren hvordan fanger forholder seg i møte med fengselet som en form for maktteknologi. Spørsmålet er hvordan fangene, innenfor de rammene en fengselsavdeling gir, anlegger seg friområder, finner frem til og utforsker skjulte fluktruter og gjør kreativ og produktiv motstand mot dagliglivets rutinemessige maktformer i fengselet. Boken er slik sett en studie av frihetens muligheter, former og resultater i konteksten frihetsberøvelse i fengsel. Den viser hvordan det er et mål for fangene å gjøre seg selv til noe annet eller mer enn "en fange". Gjennom ulike strategier utfordrer, omformer og modifiserer de den fangestatusen de tilskrives av fengselet og samfunnet rundt. Hvordan ulike motstandshandlinger inngår i dette forhandlingsarbeidet er bokens tema.

In the growing field of comparative criminal justice, the Nordic countries are regularly used as ... more In the growing field of comparative criminal justice, the Nordic countries are regularly used as exceptions to the global move towards growing rates of imprisonment and tougher, less welfare-oriented crime-control policies.

Why are the Nordic penal institutions viewed as so ‘different’ from a non-Nordic vantage point? Are Nordic prisons and penal policies in fact positive exceptions to the general rule? If they are, what exactly are the exceptional qualities, and why are the Nordic societies lucky enough to have them? Are there important overlooked examples of Nordic ‘bad practice’ in the penal area? Could there be a specifically Nordic way of doing prison research, contributing to the gap between internal and external perspectives?

In considering – among others – the above questions, this book explores and discusses the Nordic jurisdictions as contexts for the specific penal policies and practices that may or may not be described as exceptional.

Written by leading prison scholars from the Nordic countries as well as selected researchers from the English-speaking world ‘looking in’, this book will be particularly useful for students of criminology and practitioners across the Nordic countries, but also of relevance in a wider geographical context.

The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice

Our aim in this conceptual article is to theoretically reimagine the concept of ‘healthy prisons’... more Our aim in this conceptual article is to theoretically reimagine the concept of ‘healthy prisons’ in a way that more thoroughly grounds it in the everyday experiences of prisoners. Our point of departure is the observation that there seems to be an intriguing conceptual and theoretical overlap between first‐person oriented empirical studies of two spheres of human experience that are normally seen as separate: serious illness and imprisonment. Our analysis leads us to reimagine the term ‘healthy prisons’ in a way that increases its usefulness for anyone interested in making prisons healthier and more constructive and reinventive institutions.

SSRN Electronic Journal

Published in Power and pain in the modern prison: The society of captives revisited. Ben Crewe, A... more Published in Power and pain in the modern prison: The society of captives revisited. Ben Crewe, Andrew Goldsmith and Mark Halsey (eds), Oxford University Press, 2022.

Theoretical Criminology, 2019

In most jurisdictions, immigration detention centres are seen as an important part of the immigra... more In most jurisdictions, immigration detention centres are seen as an important part of the immigration control system. Research suggests that stressful waiting and the experience of uncertainty are common at such institutions. However, few empirical studies show how detainees manage these matters. In this article, we draw on fieldwork conducted at the only detention centre in Norway. Detainees described their situation as frustrating and emotionally challenging; and we show how they as a response developed a set of coping techniques aimed at ‘making their own time’. The most important were: (1) living in ‘slow motion’; (2) censorious attacks directed at the institution to break the monotony; (3) the use of benzodiazepines to regulate the perception of time; and (4) religious practices to connect the present with the future. We conclude that when investigating coping- and resistance strategies, we should not overlook the temporal aspects of them and their implications.

Power and Pain in the Modern Prison

Sykes’s The Society of Captives is an undisputable classic. It can be said to have spawned a whol... more Sykes’s The Society of Captives is an undisputable classic. It can be said to have spawned a whole penological tradition of studies of the phenomenology of imprisonment. It has also been hugely influential internationally, including in Norway where criminology students have been assigned Sykes’s book at least since the 1980s. In this chapter, I look at how Norwegian criminologists have read and used Sykes’s classic text as part of their own research. I discuss why some parts of the book have been referred to extensively while other parts seem to have been mostly ignored by Norwegian scholars, and I show how selective interpretation of some of Sykes’s key terms (one might even say “misinterpretation”) have contributed to this lopsided focus.

The Encyclopedia of Corrections

Nordic Journal of Criminology

Narrative Criminology, 2015

BACKGROUND A large proportion of the prison population experiences substance use disorders (SUDs)... more BACKGROUND A large proportion of the prison population experiences substance use disorders (SUDs), which are associated with poor physical and mental health, social marginalization, and economic disadvantage. Despite the global situation characterized by the incarceration of large numbers of people with SUD and the health problems associated with SUD, people in prison are underrepresented in public health research. OBJECTIVE The overall objective of the PriSUD (Diagnosing and Treating Substance Use Disorders in Prison)-Nordic project is to develop new knowledge that will contribute to better mental and physical health, improved quality of life, and better life expectancies among people with SUD in prison. METHODS PriSUD-Nordic is based on a multidisciplinary mixed method approach, including the methodological perspectives of both quantitative and qualitative methods. The qualitative part includes ethnographic fieldwork and semistructured interviews. The quantitative part is a regist...

Norsk sosiologisk tidsskrift, 2019

Kritisk juss, 2017

demokratisk triumf. Reaksjonene lot ikke vente på seg. Kritikerne mener at flatskjermfjernsyn og ... more demokratisk triumf. Reaksjonene lot ikke vente på seg. Kritikerne mener at flatskjermfjernsyn og flislagt bad på hver celle gjør at den nyåpnede institusjonen minner om et femstjerners hotell for mordere og voldtektsmenn. Når er et fengsel som et hotell? På hvilke måter minner hoteller om fengsler? Og hva skjer om man sammenligner? 1 Forfatteren er for tiden gjennomføringsstipendiat ved Institutt for kriminologi og rettssosiologi, Universitetet i Oslo. Han leverte sommeren 2010 sin ph.d.-avhandling om makt og motstand i hverdagslivet i fengsel.

The Encyclopedia of Corrections, 2017

The Emerald Handbook of Narrative Criminology, 2019

This chapter explores the intersections between narrative criminology and material culture studie... more This chapter explores the intersections between narrative criminology and material culture studies using a single object – my wife’s old Nazi rifle – as an example. It describes the various connections between the stories we tell and the things that surround us, including the stories objects represent, the stories they may prompt us to tell, the stories we tell using objects as props, and the stories our material objects tell about us their owners or users. An object will always tell stories about past, present and future use. This is true of all objects, not just old Nazi rifles, but some things will carry more narrative potential than others. Finally, I ask whether some narratively loaded objects may anticipate or perhaps even precipitate certain actions. Is it true that some objects sometimes ask us to put them to use? The Emerald Handbook of Narrative Criminology (2019), J Fleetwood, L Presser, S Sandberg & T Ugelvik (eds), Emerald.

Justice and Security in the 21st Century, 2012

This chapter has three purposes. First, I will discuss what a prison is and is supposed to be in ... more This chapter has three purposes. First, I will discuss what a prison is and is supposed to be in the welfare state context of contemporary Norway. Second, and drawing on Louis Althusser (1971) concept of interpellation, Michel Foucault’s (2000c) take on the subject as connected to forms of power and resistance to power, and Giorgio Agambens (2000, 2010) writings on the homo sacer, I will discuss the significance of the new Norwegian policy of dividing prisoners in two broad categories based on citizenship. As a “system of differentiation” (Foucault 2000c) thus employed, one might say that Halden prison signals a shift in the official Norwegian way of giving priority to the values of justice and security. At the moment Halden prison started making the distinction between different kinds of prisons with different clienteles, the prison as a particular institution was connected to a more general social process where an optic of exclusion creates two different categories of prisoners positioned differently vis-a-vis the state. Third, I will give a few examples of strategies employed by the outsider-prisoners in Oslo prison when they adapt to and resist the way they experience, qua both prisoners and foreigners, being positioned on or beyond the margins of the general society of Norwegians on the other side of the prison walls. The overarching issue is this: What happens when the prison as a specific form of social technology, in the context of a Scandinavian welfare state with its ideal of prisoner rehabilitation, meets the growing numbers of foreign outsider-prisoners awaiting deportation?

Gresham Sykes and Sheldon Messinger (1960) call this moral culture the “inmate code.” The code is... more Gresham Sykes and Sheldon Messinger (1960) call this moral culture the “inmate code.” The code is an informal set of values and norms used among prisoners as a guide to appropriate behaviour. One of the tenets calls for prisoners to "be sharp," meaning that they should never, under any circumstances, side with or show respect for prison officers and their allies. This puts into place a symbolic demarcation separating prisoners on one side, and prison officials on the other, structuring everything that goes on in a prison, including what the system is and how it works. According to the inmate code, prisoners and prison officers are radically different and never the twain shall meet. In focus in this chapter are remand or pre-trial prisoners, whose social location within the prison not only influences their lives in prison, but also informs their construction of the system, an object of continual concern to them.

The publication of the annual State Budget is always a significant political event in Norway, and... more The publication of the annual State Budget is always a significant political event in Norway, and the 2013 budget (released on 8 October 2012) was no exception. One of the major new developments made public that day was the fact that Kongsvinger prison, until then an unremarkable medium-sized prison with both high-security and low-security wings serving the larger Kongsvinger area, would soon reopen as Norway’s first all-foreign prison. About a month later, the North-Eastern regional office of the Norwegian Correctional Services received a letter from the central Correctional Services administration office in Oslo. According to the letter, the target group for this new kind of institution would be male prisoners who had received a final expulsion order from the immigration authorities, and who were going to be either deported from the country upon release, or transferred to a prison in their country of origin to serve out some portion of their sentence there. The letter emphasized t...

Scandinavian Penal History, Culture and Prison Practice, 2017

Imagine a prison. What does it look like? Who live inside? How are they treated? Ask these questi... more Imagine a prison. What does it look like? Who live inside? How are they treated? Ask these questions of children, and they will tend to give you a pretty straightforward answer based on what they have learned from adults and quite often what they have seen in movies, TV series and on the Internet: “The windows are very small and it’s dark,” “you wear a blue uniform—or orange,” “the guards are strict because you are criminal” and so on. Many learn from childhood that if a person does something very wrong the police will come and get you, and if you are a “criminal” you will go to prison.

The British Journal of Criminology, 2021

While prisons are often described as places of pain, despair and hopelessness, studies show that ... more While prisons are often described as places of pain, despair and hopelessness, studies show that some prisoners under certain conditions report positive life changes happening in prison. This paper explores the connections between trust and desistance processes, specifically between the experience of being trusted and ‘tertiary desistance’. I argue that trust can be an engine of positive change in prison and that the experience of being trusted might even acquire additional value from the low-trust and risk-sensitive environment that most prisons normally offer prisoners. Finally, I discuss whether prisons that manage to get this balance right deserve to be called ‘reinventive prisons’.

Scandinavian Penal History, Culture and Prison Practice, 2017

The publication of the annual State Budget is always a significant political event in Norway, and... more The publication of the annual State Budget is always a significant political event in Norway, and the 2013 budget (released on 8 October 2012) was no exception. One of the major new developments made public that day was the fact that Kongsvinger prison, until then an unremarkable medium-sized prison with both high-security and low-security wings serving the larger Kongsvinger area, would soon reopen as Norway’s first all-foreign prison. About a month later, the North-Eastern regional office of the Norwegian Correctional Services received a letter from the central Correctional Services administration office in Oslo. According to the letter, the target group for this new kind of institution would be male prisoners who had received a final expulsion order from the immigration authorities, and who were going to be either deported from the country upon release, or transferred to a prison in their country of origin to serve out some portion of their sentence there. The letter emphasized that although prisoners would be provided with services targeted at their specific status and situation, these services would be of the same quality as those you would expect to find in a Norwegian prison.

Nordisk politiforskning, 2016

Immigration detention centres are often highly controversial institutions. They are frequently cr... more Immigration detention centres are often highly controversial institutions. They are frequently criticized for being too high-security and too prison-like, and they are therefore seen as unfit to hold a population of people who have done nothing wrong apart from searching out a new life for themselves and their families in a new country. According to critics, they are prisons for people that do not belong in prisons. This paper will discuss aspects of the ongoing negotiations over legitimacy that have taken place within and surrounding the Norwegian Police Immigration Service Detention Centre. Based on a reading of publicly available texts about the detention centre (newspaper articles, op-ed pieces, monitoring board reports, court decisions, etc.) as well as four months of fieldwork in the centre in 2013, I will show how the institution has responded actively to criticism in order to strengthen the legitimacy of Norwegian immigration detention.

Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal, 2016

In many countries, immigrating detention is a controversial issue. Immigration detention centres ... more In many countries, immigrating detention is a controversial issue. Immigration detention centres are frequently seen as concrete symbols of the most problematic side of state immigration control. Immigration detention is often seen as illegitimate by external (immigration law activists) and internal (detainees) critics. Detention centres, in short, frequently operate with a significant legitimacy deficit. This deficit creates problems for detention centre officers who want to feel good about themselves and the work they do. The professional role of the immigration detention officer can be personally challenging and emotionally demanding. Detention centre officers need to address the legitimacy deficit and somehow reconstruct themselves and the institution they work in as legitimate. This paper describes the narrative self-legitimation work that goes on when detention centre officers at the Police Aliens Holding Centre at Trandum, Norway share stories over lunch or a cup of coffee.

This post is not intended as a book review per se. Rather, Ines Hasselberg and Thomas Ugelvik eac... more This post is not intended as a book review per se. Rather, Ines Hasselberg and Thomas Ugelvik each provide a frank and open commentary on what the book has meant to them. In particular they focus on Kaufman’s approach to the study of prison and border control and the importance of examining the increasing rates of foreign-nationals in prison across different jurisdictions. The commentaries are based on the participation of Ines and Thomas in the launch of this book earlier this year at the University of Oxford co-hosted by Border Criminologies and Oxford University Press. We hope this post encourages you to read Punish & Expel and appreciate its important contribution to a better understanding of border control, citizenship, and punishment.