Prisoners in Denmark may soon be able to interact with their children from behind bars under a new initiative which would see them read bedtime stories onto CDs.
The proposal is from the Danish Prison and Probation Service (DPPS), which seeks greater family interaction through allowing prisoners to provide their own children with stories. The DPPS has made a grant application for DKK 335,000 (USD 65,000) for recording equipment and project evaluation and operation, with coordinators hoping to run the scheme in two five-month instalments.
“There’s been a really comprehensive project in Britain for many years where inmates, as well as soldiers stationed abroad, can record bedtime stories for their children,” said Hannah Hagerup of the DPPS, explaining that the idea was inspired by similar successful programmes in the UK and Sweden.
A pilot project will be trialled at Funen’s Ringe state prison and if approved could result in much more than just recorded CDs, according to prison teacher Susanne Mose Holm. Holm said that many prisoners themselves have trouble reading and such a scheme would promote an interest in continuing education amongst inmates and lead to greater self-confidence, The Copenhagen Post reports.
The scheme would also teach Danish values in relation to raising children, as many of the prisoners come from non-Danish ethnic backgrounds. “We want to hold presentations about childhood development and have a librarian explain the meaning of reading out loud to their children,” said Holm.
The project is the second operation from the DPPS aimed at helping prisoners bond with children and follows last year’s Book Start programme which offers a range of children’s books from the Danish Agency for Libraries and Media. Some 400 book packs have been sent to inmates across Denmark to allow them to read stories to their visiting children.
Jan, I’d say it is because they live in Denmark and the whole of human history shows that any society needs to share some extensive common cultural background to live and develope in peace.
Can you think of any proper counterexample? I have only one: the US! But if you look closer, they DO share a very strong cultural value overriding anything else: individual economic profit… Now, I much prefer the Danes! Especially when looking to considering what places like Malmö have become under the more open Swedish immigration policy.
I think “integration” means “accepting and encouraging somebody coming from a different culture to merge with the society of his new country and culture”. Otherwise let’s stop using “integration” and switch to some US-style “melting pot”… would you prefer that? I don’t.
BTW I’m an expat myself being from Milano (Italy), residing in Denmark, and travelling for work to several different countries within and outside Europe every year. Before that, I have worked, lived and studied in several other countries, not only in the “rich EU”. But I would always choose Denmark over any other country, including my own, as a place for me and my family to live.
In Denmark I’ve never felt discriminated for being a foreigner, even though my Danish is still quite bad… I simply try to understand, appreciate and adapt to the culture of the place I live. After all, nobody is taken by force to Denmark, and I would say immigrants from troubled or less developed contries, perhaps escaping war and misery, should be even more appreciative of the peaceful and developed country they settle in. Of course it is difficult and it takes good will, but without effort you never achieve anything.
Why do prisoners of non-Danish ethnic backgrounds need to be taught Danish values in relation to raising children. Are we to conclude that these Danish values are better than the prisoners’ own “ethnic” values?
I guess that when the Danish People’s party get their legislation passed in the parliment, all “suspects of crime” of non-Danish ethnic origin will be subject to deportation and the Danish prisons won’t have to deal with these elements.