Prison Libraries the Scandinavian Way: An Overview of the Development and Operation of Prison Library Services

Economic and organizational structures are important factors that affect how, and to what extent, prisoners receive satisfactory library services. In the Scandinavian countries, the services offered are largely dependent on existing national policy. In Norway, changes in the organization and financing of prison library services over the past thirty years have led to improved service. During these years, there have also been changes to public library services, largely as the result of new technology. Such changes pose challenges to government authorities at all levels, as well as to individual prison libraries, in regard to what services should encompass and how they are provided. The development in Norway in the area of prison libraries and the challenges these libraries face are presented and compared with the prison library situation in the neighboring countries of Sweden and Denmark. The main emphasis is placed on national policy and organization, with particular focus on the positive developments of recent years in Norway. Background The prison library is often referred to as a “normal zone” for prisoners, and the services and resources offered are very important for their rehabilitation, education, and socialization. For many prisoners, the library functions as a window to the world in an otherwise monotonous existence behind the walls. The library and the librarian bring mental stimulation from the outside into the prisons in the form of literature, culture, current events, and knowledge, which provide opportunities and gateways to a richer life. However, for the library to function as the “normal” room 474 library trends/winter 2011 in the prison, fundamental economic and organizational structures must be in place. National policy, economy support, and service structure are important factors that affect how, and to what extent, prisoners receive satisfactory library services. The Scandinavian countries share many similarities as neighboring countries with small populations, situated in Northern Europe. Sweden is the largest country with 9.3 million inhabitants, followed by Denmark with 5.5 million, and Norway with 4.8 million. These countries have a long common history during which, at various times, they have been unified with each other, the last union being between Norway and Sweden, which ended in 1905. The languages are so alike that people understand each other’s spoken and written words, and there are many similarities in the respective political systems. Close cross-border cooperation also exists in many public and private sectors. Even though the Scandinavian countries may appear very similar from an international perspective, differences still exist. Population density, for example, is more than six times higher in Denmark than in the two other countries, with 128 inhabitants per square kilometer: Norway having a population density of fifteen and Sweden twenty inhabitants per square kilometer. There were approximately 14,000 prisoners in Scandinavian prisons on an average day in 2008. Just under 3,500 of these were in Norwegian prisons. These figures show a relatively low number of prisoners in the three countries compared to the incarceration rates in the rest of the world: Sweden has seventy-four prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, Norway sixty-nine, and Denmark sixty-three. In comparison, England and Wales have 153 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, Germany 89, and France 96 (Walmsley, 2010). Inmates in Scandinavian prisons serve their sentences in a total of 219 facilities, including transitional housing units in Norway, with a total of 14,731 inmate places. The facilities vary greatly in size and incarceration conditions—from small entities with less than 10 places to the largest unit with 545 places, situated in Denmark. In Sweden and Norway, the largest facilities have 301 and 251 places respectively (Oslo prison is listed as a single facility with 392 places in the official statistics but consists of two separate departments, each with its own library. Halden Prison, which opened in April 2010, is now Norway’s largest prison) (Kristoffersen, 2010). One unique feature of the Norwegian prison service is that it consists of relatively small prison units, some of which have fewer than twenty-five inmates. This factor, to a large extent, determines how prison library services can be organized. The staff rate is 107 employees per 100 prisoners in Denmark, 89 per 100 prisoners in Norway, and 99 per 100 prisoners in Sweden (Kristoffersen, 2010). Differences do exist as to whether certain services are staffed by the prison’s own employees or are provided by nonprison employees. The Council of Europe publishes 475 ljødal & ra/scandinavia comparative statistics in this field for their member nations, and the 2008 statistics show that the Scandinavian countries have 1.4 to 1.6 prisoners per custodial staff member, with the average of the other nations being 3.1 (Aebi & Delgrande, 2010). The main features of the Scandinavian prisons are that they are relatively small and well-staffed, and that the rate of incarceration is low compared to other countries. The provision of library services for prison inmates has long traditions in Scandinavia. In the middle of the nineteenth century, the single-cell system was introduced; in Norway this occurred in 1851 with the opening of a new penitentiary in the nation’s capital. Inmates were now isolated from each other, and a system was developed to provide them with reading materials in order to counteract the negative effects of isolation. In Denmark in the 1860s, a library was established in the prison in Vridløse, with a teacher assigned to operate it (M. Dyrbye, personal communication, March 16, 2010). In Denmark, however, the first prison libraries consisted of small collections of pietistic religious publications from the middle of the eighteenth century. Prisoners were limited mainly to these religious and edifying works until the latter half of the nineteenth century, when a wider range of both fiction and nonfiction was made available to them. At that time, library services were still considered as a reward for good behavior, and limitations were imposed on what was made available to different groups of prisoners (Källqvist, 1970). In Håndbok over norske biblioteker (Handbook of Norwegian Libraries), published in 1924 by the Norwegian Library Association, four prison libraries are mentioned, all located in the capital city. In 1948, the number of books in Norwegian prisons totaled approximately 50,000. These collections were randomly put together and consisted partly of old books that were not of current interest. But gradually more selections from the local public library began to be provided during regular on-site visits from a librarian or through deposit collections. In Sweden in 1949, public library experts proclaimed that prison libraries belonged to the most neglected areas of modern library services (“Historik: Fängelsebibliotek” [History: Prison Libraries], 2002). In Norway, it was usually members of the clergy who were responsible for building and running the library services, while inmate workers were mainly assigned to operate lending activities and provide reader guidance (Frisvold, 1977). After the Second World War, prison libraries were gradually integrated into the service structure of the Danish public library system as part of library outreach work (M. Dyrbye, personal communication, March 16, 2010). In Norway, section 58.2 of prison regulations from 1961 state that all institutions are to have a collection of books, preferably to be administrated by a senior civil servant (Biblioteket—Det normale rommet i fengselet [The Library—A Normal Room