Förändring eller förvaring bakom murarna? En intervjustudie om intagnas upplevelser av kriminalvårdspersonal
Therapeutic communityPsychologyPrison rulesCorrectional systemInstitutional treatmentPsykologiSocial Sciences
This paper presents an investigation into the relationship between inmates and staff in a high security prison in Sweden. The primary objectives are to investigate this relationship from an inmate perspective and to identify key factors that may promote or hinder rehabilitative interaction with staff. Empirical data utilized in this study consist of semi-structured interviews carried out by the authors with nine inmates currently in custody of the treatment facility within the prison and six inmates housed within the study facility. This data collection method is an extension of grounded theory and four key themes were generated from the data analysis. The first of these examines the effect of rule enforcement on prison atmosphere and subsequent staff/inmate relations. Secondly the analysis investigates the extent to which this relationship is affected by the role or position of prison staff. Furthermore the complexities of the dual role held by correctional staff are explored and lastly the rehabilitative benefits of staff /inmate interaction is assessed. Conclusions show that while there are both positive and negative influences on the rehabilitative benefit of staff and inmate interaction, the relationship is governed at present by restrictive negative influences.