Narratives of normality: Finnish prisoners envisioning their future

Emma Villman

doi:10.1177/14624745211007192

Abstract

The ambition of living ‘a normal life’ appears to be common among prisoners prior to release. Besides portraying for the life desired upon release, the notion of a normal life can say something about what the persons aspiring to it thinks of their present life, what they want their life to be like in future, and what they consider attainable. This article explores the subjective and social considerations of prisoners’ desires for normality. Qualitative interviews with prisoners at low-security open prisons in Finland ( N = 45) revealed three narratives of normality: (1) nostalgic normality, balancing the disruption caused by imprisonment; (2) imagined normality, envisioning a future life script; (3) challenging views of normality, which is still desired, but whose legal and conventional norms are contested. While prison authorities and prisoners generally idealize normality in terms of conduct, prisoners’ stories reveal that they utilize the notion for a number of reasons. The personal narratives of normality can function as genuine and strategic expressions of conformity or resistance. In their narratives, the prisoners disclose the obstacles to normality that they anticipate, showing the uncertainty behind their simple wish to “just live a normal life.”

Highlights

The desire for a normal life appears to be common among prisoners prior to release
Prisoners aspiring to a life without crime tend to formulate their reintegration ambitions in terms of conventional aspirations and norms (Doekhie and Van Ginneken, 2020; Shapland and Bottoms, 2011; van Ginneken, 2015)
When talking about a normal life, the interviewees generally meant two things. They discussed what they considered to be the opposite of a normal life: crime, imprisonment, and drugs

Summary

Introduction

The desire for a normal life appears to be common among prisoners prior to release. Prisoners aspiring to a life without crime tend to formulate their reintegration ambitions in terms of conventional aspirations and norms (Doekhie and Van Ginneken, 2020; Shapland and Bottoms, 2011; van Ginneken, 2015). The conventional aspirations typically focus on being crime-free, drug-free, and having a conventional family life with a partner, a house, and children (Doekhie and Van Ginneken, 2020; Salovaara, 2019). Little scholarly attention has been paid to the notion of normality within prison studies. Prisoners’ aspirations for a normal life are worth studying as they are ubiquitous, vividly illustrating “the struggle to remain human, all too human, despite marginalizing and alienating characterizations” (Arrigo, in Presser, 2008: xi)

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion