Prison as a Mirror of Society
Prison is an institution which challenges our society: Imprisonment cuts off personal freedom, the most valued commodity in a democracy. Annelie Ramsbrock writes of how the West German state after 1945 tried to address this dilemma: Prison was no longer to be only a punishment. It was supposed to re-socialise the offender. Punishment was liberalised through work and education, visiting rights, correspondence, arts activities and sports facilities. Life outside was replicated as far as possible.
But prison is quite a strange place, where people live together strongly regulated in the narrowest of spaces. Annelie Ramsbrock describes this world close-up and asks, in the end, if resocialisation is at all possible. Can people be taught how to behave in society while they are locked away and excluded?
