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Paper short abstract

This is an overview of Sweden’s prison abolition movement, focusing on KRUM in the 1960s-70s. Based on interviews with former activists, their engagement is understood using theories of prison abolition and prefigurative politics. KRUM at the time is seen through today’s punitive trend in Sweden.

Paper long abstract

The “carceral state” tells us something about society and, more generally, about norms of governance (Ortner, 2016). In spite of demands for harsher punishment in many parts of the world, there are also counter-movements to reform and abolish prisons, and for example, in the United States, activists and scholars situate contemporary incarceration in the historical context of racism and slavery (Davis et al. 2022, Gilmore 2007, Kaba 2021). Still, in today’s political climate in Sweden, it seems unthinkable that prison abolition could gain influence. The political aim is to increase the prison population fourfold, contrary to the broader European trend of declining prison populations. Surprisingly, and in spite of the contemporary Swedish political trend, the pioneers of the prison abolition movement are to be found in Sweden in the 1960s and 1970s. This presentation focuses on the core of the movement, the pioneers in KRUM (The National Swedish Association for the Humanization of the Prison and Probation Service). How was KRUM even possible, and how can we understand the activists’ engagement? The presentation is based on interviews with core members of KRUM, at the time 20-25 years old, now in their 70s and 80s. The aim is to shed light on the activists through Thomas Mathiesen’s (1972) theories of prison abolition and “the unfinished”, in combination with the concept of “prefigurative politics” (Juris 2008; Monticelli 2024). The KRUM-activists at the time are viewed in the light of today’s punitive trend in Sweden.