Scandinavian Prison Food: Kumla, Sweden
After over a week in Denmark, I travelled 4 hours by train from Copenhagen to the small city of Norrköping in the east of Sweden. Not only was this the location of the Swedish Prison and Probation Service HQ (where I met with the Head of Catering and Head of Procurement), but also close to two of three prisons I would be visiting in the country - Skenäs, a male open prison and Kumla, Sweden’s largest prison, a high security facility holding 500 serious offenders.
It was here that I was greeted by Robin, the Catering Manager, and Antonio, one of his catering staff, who just so happened to be from Tottenham - what are the chances! It was great to be accompanied by a fellow Brit, who instantly got the gist when I talked through a typical prison menu in the UK - “chips, curry and shepherd’s pie!” In Kumla, chips are off the menu (as requested by the prisoners) and the rest of it is a mix of typical Swedish dishes (meatballs on a Monday and yellow pea soup and pancakes every Thursday) and more culturally-diverse dishes that reflect the huge range of nationalities in the prison.
150 of the men in Kumla live in self-catered units, but the remaining 350 get all of their meals from the prison kitchen, cooked by these guys and about 10 staff. It was fascinating to me to find out that in Sweden, the prisoners don’t work in the prison kitchen. This isn’t just limited to high security establishments like Kumla - even in open prisons, the only prisoners you’ll find in the kitchen are there for cleaning duties. In the UK, the prisoners form such an important part of the kitchen workforce - I can’t imagine going into a prison kitchen and not seeing up to 30 men keeping busy and making sure the meals get out on time. Just like the UK, Sweden was also experiencing a chef shortage and prison staffing issues - both Robin and Antonio agreed that it would make so much more sense to utilise some of the talent sat within the prison walls by bringing them into the kitchen to cook.
Kumla Prison, Sweden
Kumla isn’t like any other prison I’ve been to before. The main walkways and body of the prison is set underground. Even prison staff who have worked there for 10 years still struggle to navigate the maze of tunnels which run for almost 1.5km. Most large prisons take a long time to get from A to B in, and in typical Scandi fashion, Kumla had its very own solution to this: scooters. As we walked along the corridor, officers scooted by on prison-issue scooters. When an alarm went off and they needed to be redeployed to a certain unit, they all hopped on their scooters, whizzed down the underground corridors and got there in a flash. The epitome of efficiency.
After spending the morning in the main kitchen, I was able to join a cooking class that was taking place upstairs in the education kitchen. Here, most of the men in the prison get the opportunity to take part in a ‘home economics’ style short course. Led by a catering tutor, the men learn all the basic skills required to make good quality food and take care of their health and wellbeing. They were all told in advance that ‘Lucy from England’ would be paying them a visit, and so today’s menu was a special one, involving beef tacos and a homemade rhubarb crumble and Mississippi mud pie for dessert.
The day before I was in Kumla, I was standing in a Swedish supermarket scratching my head at the HUGE aisle of Mexican food in the small supermarket of a relatively rural town. What’s with all the tacos? A quick Google when I got home gave me the answer. ‘Taco Friday’ or Fredagsmys (literally translated to ‘Cosy Friday’) is a beloved Swedish tradition. Every Friday, across the country, families tuck into Tex-Mex style food - ground beef, tortilla shells, salsa, guacamole and some typically Swedish additions: cucumber, pickles and homemade yoghurt sauces. Taco Friday has become a national institution - people stay inside, watch TV, eat tacos and generally enjoy all things ‘hygge’ (Mexican style!).
Swedish food culture is rooted in these little traditions and rituals, and I felt this in every prison I was in in the country. Fika (taking time in your day to stop for a coffee and a Swedish pastry or bun) was an important part of daily life - almost every room in the prison had a pot of coffee in the corner of the room. Apparently it’s written into employment law that any meeting over an hour long, has to involve a break for Fika.
As we sat round and ate our tacos, the 4 men from the self-catered unit told me about their very strict protein-led diet during the week, but how Saturday was set aside to ‘splurge’. The men got together to make cakes and sweet treats on the weekend, commonly known in Sweden as “lördagsgodis” - literally translated as ‘Saturday candy’! The idea behind lördagsgodis is moderation - to limit consumption of the sweet stuff to a weekly, rather than a daily, occurrence. So on a Saturday, people across the country are gorging on chocolate, sweets and cakes once a week - and prison is no exception. It’s been fascinating to observe how prison life in different countries is not just dictated by government policy, facilities or taxpayer money, but by the cultures and traditions of each country. For the men I met, this enabled them to foster a sense of normality - it reminded them of home, their families and cherished memories.
One of the cells at Kumla.
My experiences in Kumla and Sweden in general were an eye-opening time for me. Both the country and the prison system are going through a period of great change and adjustment. Much like the other Nordic countries, Sweden has long been known for its restorative approach to criminal justice, its humane prisons and low reoffending rate (in 2020 it had the lowest reoffending rate in Europe at 16%). But things are rapidly changing. A new right-wing political party coupled with a huge increase in violent crime has led to a ‘tough on crime’ policy, longer sentences and a mammoth prison building programme, similar to what we are seeing in the UK.
I felt I was visiting Sweden at a turning point. Many staff told me that when they joined the service only 5 years ago, they were closing prisons down as they couldn’t fill them. Now, the opposite is true. Every prison I went to was a building site - cells were being doubled up, new units were being built and they were running out of space. One governor was concerned as she simply did not have enough work or education for the amount of prisoners that was expected. Another governor told me that he might need to start laying out beds on the floor of his remand unit.
It felt all too familiar - I left Sweden feeling inspired by my experience, but equally as fearful for the future of their prison system. Prisons were being forced to start turning their backs on the original rehabilitative philosophy their system is known for. Staff were sceptical and negative about this. When I told them the types of challenges prison officers experienced on a daily basis in the UK due to large prisons, a lack of meaningful activity and a system in crisis, they were worried this could become their reality. For now, things at Kumla remain relatively stable, but there was a simmering atmosphere and tension that suggested things could feel very different, very soon.
Once again a huge thank you to the kindness and hospitality of everyone I met in Sweden. The beautiful countryside, cosy food culture and kind people made my stay one I will never forget. For now, it’s onwards to Finland for my final week!
Lucy x