Prison Life

This study examines the lived experiences of selected inmates, some of whom have been released from New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, Philippines, focusing on how incarceration has transformed their lives. Faced with significant mental and emotional challenges, the inmates embraced a new life of faith amid the harsh realities of prison life. The study employs a phenomenological method to gather narratives from the inmates and analyze them thematically. The central issue this research addresses is understanding how prison experiences trigger spiritual transformation in individuals. The study's objective is to explore the spiritual changes experienced by the inmates through religious participation, using the theoretical framework of existential philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard's concepts of the paradoxical nature of despair and the three stages of life-the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious-are applied to understand the spiritual dynamics experienced by the inmates. The findings reveal that participation in religious activities can ignite profound spiritual change, even within the confines of physical and personal restrictions. The inmates' narratives highlight a journey from despair to spiritual awakening, illustrating the existential dynamics of human freedom, authenticity, and community. The study recommends providing spiritual support as an integral part of inmate rehabilitation, emphasizing how religious participation can offer inner freedom even amid physical confinement.

In diesem Artikel gehen wir naher auf den Hafturlaub ein, eine Lockerungsmasnahme, die die Wissenschaft grostenteils vernachlassigt. Uber den Hafturlaub in Europa (und anderswo) ist sehr wenig bekannt. In diesem Artikel konzentrieren wir uns auf Fragen, die sich im Zusammenhang mit einer Analyse des Hafturlaubs in acht Landern Europas ergeben haben. Wissenschaftler*innen aus Belgien, Danemark, Finnland, Frankreich, Italien, Rumanien, Spanien und der Ukraine legten uns detaillierte Berichte uber den Hafturlaub in ihrem jeweiligen Land vor. In diesem Beitrag greifen wir auf dieses Wissen zuruck, um allgemeine Fragen zu den Zwecken und Funktionen des Hafturlaubs, den Kriterien fur dessen Gewahrung, der Befugnis fur seine Gewahrung, dem Zusammenhang zwischen Hafturlaub und Gefangnisleben und dem Zusammenhang zwischen Hafturlaub und Ruckfallen aufzuwerfen. Wir schliesen diesen Artikel, indem wir die Aufmerksamkeit auf eine zugrunde liegende Spannung lenken: Ist Hafturlaub ein Privileg od...

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, a prominent freedom fighter and religious scholar from India, was imprisoned by the British colonial administration many times before India gained independence in 1947. Between 1942 and 1945, the British administration incarcerated him at the Ahmadnagar Fort Prison. It was in this prison that the Maulana wrote one of the masterpieces of Urdu literature in the form of a collection of letters which he addressed to one of his closest friends, Nawab Sadr Yar Jung, Maulana Habibur Rahman Shirwani. The letters are Maulana's reflections on a host of issues: his love for tea, his love for solitude, philosophy, religion, aesthetics, ethics, sin, and the concept of God. As a piece of Prison Literature, Ghubar e Khatir could be studied as an extraordinary piece of communication that a confined writer makes with his friend by imagining him in a state of dialogue with him; and, these letters show the imprisoned writer and his resilience to continue to read and write despite his solitary confinement as a human will to survive through writing. In fact, these letters show the capacity of the human mind to create meanings, seek consolations, and heal physical wounds through such a profound engagement with reading and writing. In the present paper, an attempt shall be made to read Maulana's Ghubar e Khatir as a prison narrative, and an attempt shall also be made to see how the world within the writer helps him overcome the pain of solitary confinement.

In a recent article on Scandinavian Exceptionalism, John Pratt urges that in era defined by a preoccupation with penal excess, we need to explore what we can learn from the Scandinavian regimes characterized by low levels of imprisonment and exceptional prison conditions. This paper complements Pratt's comparative historical work by scrutinizing the realities of people living and working inside one Scandinavian penal regime. It explores prisoners' experiences of and adaption to institutional life focusing on implementation of security and order and the motivational and supportive work. It describes a thriving copresence of bewildering realities where prisoners' adaptation is defined by a straining uncertainty, ambiguity and ambivalence, and where moral divides are united in the Modus Vivendi of everyday life. In this context prisoners are expected to express regrets and aspire to reform by demonstrating they are morally on course and motivated to commence a life without crime. Instead prisoners mostly use the institutional reformative stimuli to pursue their own ends that are foreign to the system. The study describes a discrepancy between penal ideals and practices and suggests that penal realities as they are experienced from within may not match the level of exceptionalism that Pratt observes from the outside.

In a recent article on Scandinavian Exceptionalism, John Pratt urges that in era defined by a pre-occupa-tion with penal excess, we need to explore what we can learn from the Scandinavian regimes characterized by low levels of imprisonment and exceptional prison conditions. This paper complements Pratt’s com-parative historical work by scrutinizing the realities of people living and working inside one Scandinavian penal regime. It explores prisoners ’ experiences of and adaption to institutional life focusing on imple-mentation of security and order and the motivational and supportive work. It describes a thriving co-presence of bewildering realities where prisoners ’ adaptation is defined by a straining uncertainty, ambi-guity and ambivalence, and where moral divides are united in the Modus Vivendi of everyday life. In this context prisoners are expected to express regrets and aspire to reform by demonstrating they are morally on course and motivated to commence a life without crim...

In a recent article on Scandinavian Exceptionalism, John Pratt urges that in era defined by a preoccupation with penal excess, we need to explore what we can learn from the Scandinavian regimes characterized by low levels of imprisonment and exceptional prison conditions. This paper complements Pratt's comparative historical work by scrutinizing the realities of people living and working inside one Scandinavian penal regime. It explores prisoners' experiences of and adaption to institutional life focusing on implementation of security and order and the motivational and supportive work. It describes a thriving copresence of bewildering realities where prisoners' adaptation is defined by a straining uncertainty, ambiguity and ambivalence, and where moral divides are united in the Modus Vivendi of everyday life. In this context prisoners are expected to express regrets and aspire to reform by demonstrating they are morally on course and motivated to commence a life without crime. Instead prisoners mostly use the institutional reformative stimuli to pursue their own ends that are foreign to the system. The study describes a discrepancy between penal ideals and practices and suggests that penal realities as they are experienced from within may not match the level of exceptionalism that Pratt observes from the outside.

Παρουσίαση κύριων ερευνητικών αποτελεσμάτων της διδακτορικής διατριβής η οποία είχε ως στόχο τη διερεύνηση της προσαρμογής στις συνθήκες εγκλεισμού και την αλλαγή ή όχι της κοινωνικής ταυτότητας μιας πολύ συγκεκριμένης κατηγορίας κρατουμένων οι οποίοι πριν τον εγκλεισμό ανήκαν σε μεσαία ή ανώτερα κοινωνικοοικονομικά στρώματα, είχαν καταδικαστεί για βαριά οικονομικά εγκλήματα, διέθεταν υψηλό επίπεδο εκπαίδευσης και θέση ευθύνης ή εξειδίκευση στο επάγγελμα το οποίο ασκούσαν.

Η συνεχής αποκάλυψη οικονομικών εγκλημάτων τα τελευταία χρόνια, το ενδιαφέρον της κοινής γνώμης γι` αυτά και παράλληλα το ερευνητικό κενό αναφορικά με τους κρατούμενους του λευκού κολάρου αποτέλεσαν το έναυσμα για την παρούσα έρευνα, στόχος της οποίας είναι η διερεύνηση της επίδρασης του εγκλεισμού σε κρατούμενους που έχουν διαπράξει σοβαρά οικονομικά εγκλήματα και πριν τον εγκλειμσό τους ανήκαν σε ανώτερα κοινωνικοοικονομικά στρώματα. Η ιστορία ζωής αξιοποιήθηκε ως ερευνητητική μεθοδολογία συλλογής των δεδομένων και πραγματοποιήθηκαν δομημένες συνεντεύξεις σε κρατούμενους που πληρούσαν τα κριτήρια της έρευνας (έγκλημα και κοινωνική προέλευση) και στο σωφρονιστικό προσωπικό, σε δύο καταστήματα κράτησης της χώρας. Στο παρόν κείμενο παρουσιάζεται η οπτική του σωφρονιστικού προσωπικού, και όχι των ίδιων των κρατουμένων, που όμως βρίσκεται σε πλήρη σύμπνοια με τα αποτελέσματα που προέκυψαν από τις συνεντεύξεις των κρατουμένων, και συνοψίζεται στο γεγονός πως οι κρατούμενοι μεσοαστικής προέλευσης αντεπεξέρχονται και προσαρμόζονται στις συνθήκες του εγκλεισμού, πολύ συχνά με μεγαλύτερη επιτυχία απ` ό,τι οι υπόλοιποι κρατούμενοι.

In a recent article on Scandinavian Exceptionalism, John Pratt urges that in era defined by a pre-occupa- tion with penal excess, we need to explore what we can learn from the Scandinavian regimes characterized by low levels of imprisonment and exceptional prison conditions. This paper complements Pratt’s com- parative historical work by scrutinizing the realities of people living and working inside one Scandinavian penal regime. It explores prisoners’ experiences of and adaption to institutional life focusing on imple- mentation of security and order and the motivational and supportive work. It describes a thriving co- presence of bewildering realities where prisoners’ adaptation is defined by a straining uncertainty, ambi- guity and ambivalence, and where moral divides are united in the Modus Vivendi of everyday life. In this context prisoners are expected to express regrets and aspire to reform by demonstrating they are morally on course and motivated to commence a life without crime. Instead prisoners mostly use the institutional reformative stimuli to pursue their own ends that are foreign to the system. The study describes a dis- crepancy between penal ideals and practices and suggests that penal realities as they are experienced from within may not match the level of exceptionalism that Pratt observes from the outside.