Prison break—or a break from prison? Reflections on escapes from Icelandic prisons

Escapes from prison can be said to pose an existential challenge to the prison, a violation of its very raison d’être. The question is whether this is true for escapes from Nordic prisons too. Part of the folklore of Nordic prisons seems to indicate the existence of a different culture towards escapes. Escapes are frequently normalised as a natural reaction against the unnatural situation of confinement, while escape talk is frequently dominated by concern for the welfare of the escapee rather than focused on the risk they may pose while on the run. If this is the case, does this mean that escapes have no consequences for the prison system and those who run it? This article focuses on escapes from Icelandic prisons in order to separate the reality from the folklore by examining whether escapes represent a crisis or simply business as usual. Taking a ‘telling cases’ approach, we identify that escapes from open conditions tend to be used to advocate for open prisons and resist any change to their operation. Escapes from closed conditions, however, are often seen as a security failure and are frequently leveraged for change. This can be changes in staffing, security technology hardware or operational practices. In this way we can say that escapes have helped make the closed prisons more secure. At the same time, escapes have been used as an opportunity to highlight the virtues of open prisons. Here, escapes have not been a lever for change, even in the face of highly dramatic escapes. More broadly, we conclude that Nordic penal exceptionalism as well as normalisation in Nordic prisons needs to include consideration of frequency of, nature of, and attitudes to escapes, as it seems that the welfare-oriented approach that is in view is extended even to those who escape.