Per Åke Nylander

Emotional labour and emotional strain among Swedish prison officers

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.

Drug treatment in Swedish prisons – moving towards evidence-based interventions?

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.

Drug treatment in a Swedish women’s prison Relations and identities among prison officers and prisoners

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.

Parental imprisonment, child victimization and adult problems:

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.

Treating Drug Abusers in Prison: Competing Paradigms Anchored in Different Welfare Ideologies. The Case of Sweden

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.

From prison guards to… what? : Occupational development of prison officers in Sweden and Norway

Abstract Prison officers are a key group of civil servants in the criminal justice system. Based on a comparative study of the systems for vocational education in Sweden and Norway, this article compares policies and strategies for developing the prison officer occupation. Differences in this domain are analysed against the backdrop of theories about professionalization and growing differences between these countries concerning the ends and means of prison policy in general. Data come from interviews and documents collected in 2013–2014, as well as a rereading of data from two earlier prison-research projects. Results show that Norway is adopting a strategy quite similar to the one behind the birth of the so-called welfare professions during the heyday of the social-democratic welfare state. In Sweden, the continuing division of labour is leading to enhanced skills among some specialized subgroups, such as security and programme staff, but a reduction in qualifications for the majority. The study should be of interest in relation to different strategies for developing the work of prison officers as well as of other categories of public servants. It points to growing differences between two welfare regimes that used to be quite similar, not least concerning the prison policy field.