Finnish imprisonment is currently undergoing a reformation by which prisons are conceptualized as ‘learning environments for crime-free life’. Instead of emphasizing control and dominance, future Finnish prisons are to active and responsibilize the prisoners by means of ‘soft power’ and different rehabilitative activities. Although possibilities for formal education in prisons are considered important, the interpretation of learning in this context seems to underline individual self-work of the prisoners. The prisoners are expected to work on their selves in order to rework their attitudes and modes of action. In this paper, we examine the rehabilitative programme work of prisons from the viewpoint of therapeutic ethos and subjectivation.

By therapeutic ethos we refer to the expansion of ‘psy’-discourses and therapeutic practices within different spheres of society and human life. Through these discourses, an increasing number of societal issues – such as unemployment or crime – are articulated in terms of psy-knowledge. We are encouraged to seek for psychological knowledge and to engage in therapeutic exercises, such as meditation, in order to manage the challenges of work life, relationships and so on. (See Madsen 2018; Nehring et al. 2016; Saari 2018.) Above all, therapeutic practices take form in reflective work on the self. Following Foucault (1990), this working on ourselves can be understood in terms of ‘techniques of the self’: practices of observing, describing and altering our own mode of being in order to attain a certain ethical subjectivity.

The rehabilitative programmes are different types of structured courses for e.g. sexual or violent offenders or offenders with substance abuse issues, aimed to reduce the risk of recidivism. The programmes originate in the ‘What Works’ ideology of the 1980s and are based on cognitive-behavioral theory. Central to this approach is emphasis on evidence-based effectiveness of the programmes and risk assessment in the targeting of these interventions. (Bruhn, Lindberg & Nylander 2017.) Recently, the CBT approach has been supplemented with the humanistic/positive psychology framework of the so-called Good Lives Model. While the fundamental idea of reducing risk still holds, the cognitive and mental work is intended to be more motivational with a ‘positive’ outlook and emphasis on strengths instead of weaknesses (see Ward & Marshall 2004).

In this paper, we elaborate on the parallel of learning a crime-free way of life and constructing ethical subjectivity through therapeutic practices. Using one programme handbook (‘Uusi Suunta’ or the ‘New Way’ for sexual offenders with low risk of recidivism) as a case, we examine the therapeutic practices within rehabilitative programme work. Drawing from Foucault’s techniques of the self, we analyze the therapeutic self-work of the prisoners and ask, how they are expected to construct themselves as ethical subjects within the programme framework.

As the empirical data, we analyze the handbook of one rehabilitative programme: the ‘New Way’ programme, targeted for sexual offenders with low risk of recidivism. The analysis is executed through close reading, utilizing Foucault’s (1990) ‘techniques of the self’ as an analytical tool. Following the concept of techniques of the self, we analyze the dimensions of ethical work, ethical substance, mode of subjection and telos of the practices within the New Way programme. Through these dimensions, we seek to explore the ways in which the prisoners are expected to construct themselves as ethical subjects.

We will present the outcomes of the examined dimensions of techniques of the self and describe the ways in which prisoners are expected to construct themselves as ethical subjects within the programme framework. Furthermore, we will elaborate the entanglement of therapeutic practices, risk-management and ethical self-work in our analysis. The outcomes are expected to have notable relevance in the European as well as the global context. Firstly, because both the rehabilitative prison programmes and the therapeutic ethos are transnational phenomena. Secondly, because Foucauldian analysis of subject-formation, as well as the analysis of therapeutic practices, are widely applicable in the fields of education, organizational studies etc. Lastly, it is to be noted that Finnish prison institution represents the so-called ‘Scandinavian Exceptionalism’, meaning for example remarkably humane prison conditions in a global context (Pratt 2008, cf. Ugelvik & Dullum 2012). Through the ongoing institutional reformation, which emphasizes the rehabilitative and therapeutic practices as a part of the education for crime free life, Finland indeed seems to seek to create a global benchmark for model imprisonment. Considering the global regard for Finnish education, the implications of reforming Finnish prisons as educational environments is certainly a matter of global interest.

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