Pains of Discrimination and Challenges to Staff

This chapter focuses on institutional conditions and equality. Both language and religious minorities face unnecessary difficulties in Finnish prisons, and the double punishment of deportation brings severe grievances to many prisoners during incarceration. One important theme in the chapter is the nature and scale of officers’ racist behaviour, from which a large consensus exists among officers and prisoners with various backgrounds. The latter part of the chapter discusses the adaptation of officers to the changing prisoner population. I explain prison-related reasons and interaction situations that invoke racism among officers and corresponding aspects that foster positive change.