Uppfostringsanstalten: Om tvång i föräldrars ställe

The aim of the present study is to find the factors and conditions that generate the success of the reformatory as a social institution and, at the same time, its well-known failure as a treatment organization. I try to understand why organizations like the reformatory exist and what meaning they have in our society. I seek answers by exploring the birth of the reformatory in a historical perspective, by a sociological analysis of the reformatory as a "people-changing organization", and by a critical analysis of the concept of treatment. My empirical work consists of a study of various file materials/journal documentation for all juveniles residing at Råby ungdomshem (Råby Youth Home) between the years 1982 to 1993, an observational study of the work process in one of the cottages (or wards) at the Råby state correctional school, in depth interviews with the operational staff of the ward and a follow-up study of some sixty former residents, interviewed 3-10 years after release. This study shows that Råby like all similar institutions do not rehabilitate youths, they most often have the opposite effect. Life goes more or less badly for about 80% of the boys taken into institutions. The results show that treatment organizations can produce poor treatment and rehabilitation results yet still survive and develop because they are not organizations in the technical sense. They are organizations which have taken an institutional form and the criteria for their success lies in how well they adapt to the expectations of their environment. Contradictory demands from the external environment make an impact on what actually goes on inside. The conflict between the idea of treatment and society's demand for incarceration and control is ever present and continuously handicaps the personnel. These conflicts are never solved as they reflect the fundamental conditions and dilemma of the reformatory. Reformatories as treatment organizations have retained their legitimacy over a number of decades. This is the case is because space is left for hidden functions and an exercise of power which recreates and upholds a given social order.