Speakers
Workshop Session
Social infrastructure in prisons is an innovative concept that provides the foundation for allowing prisoners to practice different, future-oriented roles, which supports daily work aimed at rehabilitation and desistance. It can be thought of as both the physical spaces that promotes more normalised interactions, and as the connective tissue that is made up of the social connections and interactions between everyone within the institution. It focuses on the places, programs, and activities within the prison environment where activities and temporary roles can provide opportunities for inmates to move away from the identity of ‘prisoner’ or ‘criminal’ towards one which lays for the foundation for desistance post-release. It can do this by providing a platform that allows prisoners to practice responsibility and normalised human interaction. The concept is underpinned by the normalisation principle that is applied across Nordic countries. The question whether it can be applied, or is already used, in ‘island of exception’ within otherwise more punitive correctional approaches, for example in Australia and other Anglophone countries, will be explored in this presentation.