NCJ Number
138166
Date Published
1991
Length
55 pages
Annotation
This study of 132 Swedish prisoners starting a sojourn during September and October 1989 looked at how sojourns were prepared and at interrupted sojourns and their consequences.
Abstract
All prisoners were followed for a 6-month period, at which time 120 had been conditionally released. Information about the sample was obtained from prison staff and, where relevant, from probation officers. A smaller sample was drawn from the original 132 prisoners, and a questionnaire concerning them was filled in by staff of the therapeutic community or the family of the foster home in which they stayed. Finally, 12 inmates from the main sample and 9 prison staff with considerable experience in preparing sojourns were interviewed. Just over half of the main sample were 31 years of age or older, nearly 80 percent had previously been sentenced to probation, and 70 percent had no previous sojourn experience. Of the main sample, 72 percent were placed in therapeutic communities and 20 percent were placed with individual families in foster homes. A high proportion of sojourns were interrupted, but it is pointed out that sojourns were granted to prisoners who could not be considered good risks. These prisoners had, almost without exception, long criminal careers and were drug-dependent. Their prison careers had accustomed them to live in accordance with traditional prison norms. Many prisoners found it difficult to adjust to collective life in therapeutic communities, which emphasized shared responsibility and openness in relationships. The much higher proportion of sojourns completed in family placements may be due in part to the fact that prisoners adjust more easily to a family setting and avoid the conflicts inherent in changing from a prison community to a therapeutic community. Sojourn preparation could be improved by allowing prisoners to make short experimental stays at proposed placements. References, tables, and figures