1 Punishment Without Conviction? Scandinavian Pre-trial Practices and the Poǁer of the BeŶeǀoleŶt “tate Peter Scharff Smith 1 Published in Peteƌ “Đhaƌff “ŵith aŶd Thoŵas Ugelǀik ;eds.Ϳ, Scandinavian Penal History, Culture and Prison Practice. Embraced by the Welfare state?, London: Palgrave 2017. It is August 2015 and I am sitting in East Jutland prison in Denmark in the middle of a focus group interview with long-term prisoners several of who have sentences running in double digits. This is one of the most modern high-security facilities in all of the Danish penal estate and the prisoners we talk to have generally been imprisoned for many years. I am together with two American research colleagues who are asking the prisoners about how they experience punishment in the Danish penal system. 2 The prisoners respond by talking about two things: the lack of contact with their families and, especially, their experiences sitting in a remand prison awaiting their tƌial. DiƌeĐtlLJ ƋuestioŶed ǁhat is puŶishŵeŶt? oŶe pƌisoŶeƌ siŵplLJ aŶsǁeƌ B aŶd B, ǁhiĐh ƌefeƌs to the special restrictions on visits and correspondence which the Danish legal system allows during pre-tƌial ;field Ŷotes ϮϬϭϱͿ. 3 The reason is not that these inmates have recently left remand imprisonment; it is simply because they seem to have had their worst and toughest prison experience there before they were even sentenced. Their current stay under maximum security conditions feels much less like punishment to these prisoners. Such a reaction comes as no surprise to me after having surveyed and interviewed numerous pƌisoŶeƌs aŶd pƌisoŶ staff iŶ the DaŶish sLJsteŵ—during remand, as sentenced prisoners, and later post-release— and after having studied Danish remand practice for several years. As oŶe DaŶish ƌeŵaŶd pƌisoŶeƌ siŵplLJ ĐoŶĐludes, Those, ǁho haǀe Ŷot LJet ďeeŶ seŶteŶĐed, they live under very poor conditions—much worse than those, the sentenced prisoners live uŶdeƌ ;IŶteƌǀieǁ, ƌeŵaŶd pƌisoŶeƌͿ. IŶ the ǁoƌds of a foƌŵeƌ DaŶish pƌisoŶ goǀeƌŶoƌ, ǁe 1 Peter Scharff Smith, Professor in the Sociology of Law, Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, University of Oslo, E-mail: p.s.smith@jus.uio.no 2 I helped Keramet Reiter, Lori Sexton and Jennifer Sumner plan and conduct this research visit as part of their study of imprisonment in Denmark. They write about this and other prison visits in Denmark elsewhere in this volume. 3 B aŶd B ŵeaŶs Bƌeǀ- og ďesøgskoŶtƌol ǁhiĐh tƌaŶslates iŶto ĐoŶtƌol/suƌǀeillaŶĐe of Đoƌƌespondence and ǀisits.