Vanaja Prison: Open Prison for Females.
My arrival at Vanaja was a complete surprise to drive down a tree lined avenue with green fields all around and of course more trees as Finland has more trees than anywhere I have ever visited. Then to come upon a yellow brick building that did look like a normal government building with a lake in the distance and quite a few houses set about the general locality was a bit surreal. As I walked in there was a reception area and I noticed a number of cycling helmets hanging on a wall and a number of Nordic walking poles stashed in a cornor. It looked like a youth hostel back home. We had a long discussion about my research and the areas I was particularly interested inwith the acting director and she confirmed that Prisoners living in the open unit were encouraged to seek out help in the community and develop relationships with these organisations prior to release. If a prisoner wants to attend training, work or therapy in the community they apply to the Director who will consider the request and then may give permission for them to leave the unit and travel to the activity. Again this has proved advantageous to the unit as it helps the prisoners when it becomes time to move out into the community. The only difficulty arose when the prisoners were not returning to that general area. A lot of work appears to be done by the staff in assisting the prisoners to take responsibility for themselves and their lives. For example meals are taken in the unit’s canteen but at weekends they must cook their own food. If they cannot cook they can attend classes run in the canteen which will teach them how to prepare and cook a meal. The prisoner’s accommodation is laid out in a number of lodges. The accommodation is shared between two prisoners and they must keep their own area clean and maintained to a high standard. A number of the female prisoners work outside the unit and I noted a large number work for the forestry commission. There is also a house which has four separate apartments which are used for family visits lasting up to four days. The Prisoner is allowed to bring their partner and children and in some cases this extended to their Sister, Brother, Mother and Father. The ideology is to try and bring the extended family back together as a support for the prisoner on release. The apartments have two some three bedrooms a living area and kitchen. The visitor is allowed to bring one bag of food items everything else is supplied by the prisoner they must buy most of the food prepare and clean the apartment for the arrival of their guests. Once in the apartment they live like they would on release for the four days and have a play area outside for the children a BBQ area and seating. They are free to move around outside and can go down to the lake where there is a sauna and rowing boat which they are allowed to take out on the lake. I interviewed two female prisoners who had just returned from their work with the forestry commission. The first was a first time offender who said she was very happy to have been given a place at Vantaa as she had previously been in a closed unit. She explained that the staff are very helpful in assisting her to take responsibility for her life again and helping her seek out the help she feels she will need on her return to the community. The second had only three months left of her sentence to serve however after chatting to her she explained that she had a drugs habit and has had for years. This was her third time in custody and this time she felt it has been different as she made contact with KRIS and one of their mentors was working with her in preparation for release. She explained her Husband was also in custody for similar reasons and he was also now working with KRIS as well. She explained that through KRIS she would be going to live at the SILTA VALMENNUS project in Tampere. She explained that her Husband had also decided that they would both take this opportunity to try and change the way they had been living and hopefully they would stop their substance misuse,
I felt that the stories that both prisoners related to me show that the process of from custody to community is definitely possible if the will is there to change our policies and approach. It also made me think of how we rob the responsibility from prisoners in our care which turns them in most cases from capable to dependant on the systems which is not a good thing. I believe after nearly 19 years working in a custodial environment we need to look at how the processes are being used and how they fail the prisoners in our care and the community we seek to serve.
