SIX
Norwegian
PRISONS

1850 to 2020

Sophie Angelis, Hedda Giertsen, Elisabeth Tostrup, Zahra Memarianpour

US-Norway Fulbright Foundation
Oslo School of Architecture & Design
Dept. of Criminology & Sociology of Law, UiO

Ideas

Spaces

Experiences

Introduction

Bergen Prison

This project began with the questions: How have different ideas about prisons been reflected in prison architecture over time? And how is that architecture, in turn, experienced by prisoners?

Prisons vary: in size, in level of security and regimes, in material conditions and facilities, in traditions and culture.

But they have some fundamental characteristics in common. They are about locking people up; they are run by authoritarian regimes; and they rely on control and in the end on solitary confinement.

Within these fundamentals, they also intend to rehabilitate prisoners.
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‍This digital exhibition describes six generations of Norwegian prisons according to:
• official ideas about the purposes of prisons from 1850 through today
• architectural drawings, photos of sites, buildings and interiors. Timelines show frequencies and length of time that prisoners spend in sites for rehabilitation, isolation and control.
• social consequences of imprisonment described by prisoners’ experiences.
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Prison questions

After 170 years of using prison as a punishment, Do we know what we are doing when we lock up people and isolate them?

Do prisons meet their policy aims?

Prisons meet their aim to punish, which is to deliberately inflict pain (stated by the Norwegian High Court, 1977). Another aim is to rehabilitate prisoners. To some extent, prisoners have access to education, courses, work and programs. But there is no clear evidence that prison punishment and rehabilitation measures at large reduce crime. Living conditions before and after imprisonment, as well as the deteriorating effects of the various degrees of isolation, influence how prisoners live after release.

Are there good prisons?

The basic prison characteristic means locking up people and depriving them of their freedom. This means being treated not as a human, which is always humiliating. Within this fundamental frame, one may discuss the qualities of prisons: material conditions, prison regimes and the use of control, rehabilitation measures, degrees of overcrowding, isolation and solitary confinement.

Whose perspectives do we use to understand prisons?

• Prison policy and system perspectives
• Legal perspectives and international conventions
• Human rights
• Prisoners' perspectives on prison conditions, material and social ones, and effects of degrees of isolation.

Can WE justify continuing to use prisons to the extent we do today?

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