Indeterminate punishment as a ‘Contract’ in Denmark and Norway

Abstract

This article analyses ‘forvarings’ – indeterminately sentenced – prisoners’ understandings and expectations of, as well as their fundamental relationship with, the penal welfare state which sentenced and subsequently punishes them. Based on interviews (N: 49) with male prisoners serving an indeterminate sentence in Norway and Denmark, I nuance the connections between the wider aims and functions of the state and the everyday practices, experiences and interactions taking place in prison. I show how the Danish and Norwegian welfare states are ambidextrous in the sense that they simultaneously offer welfare-oriented support and intervention whilst indeterminately punishing some prisoners, effectively creating a ‘punitive pocket’ in which the State's full punitive and rehabilitative ambitions come alive. In doing this, I aim to go beyond questions of how much or how little pain the Nordic prison model causes and instead pinpoint the ways in which the welfare state is present in indeterminately sentenced prisoners’ lives, and with what effects.