Scandinavian Prison Food: Sulkava Prison, Finland

Three weeks have flown by and I’m now back in rainy England (although at least 10 degrees milder!) after an inspiring three weeks in Scandinavia. After two weeks across Denmark and Sweden, my trip wrapped up with a week in Finland. Although I was based in Helsinki, my work took me right across the country and I felt very privileged to be able to experience so much of this beautiful country and its welcoming people. 

The whole week of activities was kindly hosted and organised by Tatja, who is Head of Catering for the Finnish Prison and Probation Service. Not only did she make sure I visited a range of prisons, took part in a prison cooking class and met many interesting staff and prisoners throughout the week, she also took it upon herself to fully immerse me in Finnish culture, much to my joy. This meant a twilight trip to the local sauna which I found out also meant jumping in a freezing cold lake in snow and -2 degrees (thanks Tatja!), as well as taking every opportunity to absorb the breathtaking scenery that covers every inch of this country. By the end, I was sad to say goodbye to the lakes, the forests, the steaming saunas and the incredible public transport (most trains have an entire carriage repurposed into a kids’ playground - with a slide, mini library and free coffee refills for the parents).

But I was here to spend time in the prisons and when I found myself arriving at the entrance of Sulkava, an open prison in eastern Finland, I was sure we must have come to the wrong place. In front of me stretched miles of open water, with small red cabins dotting the side of the lake, conjuring images of a charming Nordic holiday camp. Much like our open prisons in the UK, Sulkava had no fences or walls and prisoners in the last stages of their sentence will come here and experience a sense of normality that hopefully makes reentering ‘normal’ society a smoother, less daunting experience. The Finnish Prison Service prides itself on their open prisons - making up around half of the prison estate. If someone is low risk enough to be in one, the chances are they will be offered a place. 

The entrance to Sulkava prison

The lake

Sulkava houses 48 men and has a team of 23 staff. It bordered a small village of around 2600 people, and this was where most of the prisoners’ accessed key services. Twice a week, officers drove small groups to the local grocery store to buy their own food which they cooked in their shared kitchens. They attended the local church on a Sunday, could visit the doctor, the dentist and the library and take up employment in the town if they wanted to. The governor told me that “Every prisoner here has to be doing something during their day, and if they don’t, they go back to a closed prison.” Many worked on the land, did metal work, studied for qualifications or had cleaning duties. 

Despite the harsh climate, Finland has a deep connection with nature that informs everything they do and helps them protect their wellbeing during the long, dark winters. Prisons are no different. At Sulkava, many men told me that they could fish in the lake (“We catch all sorts of varieties - and fish is expensive in Finland so it saves us money”), pick lingonberries and mushrooms in the forest and grow their own fruit and veg (each prisoner had a small raised bed with their name fixed to the side). They built their own smoker, to smoke fish (a centuries-old way of preserving fish in Finland) and constructed an outdoor pizza oven out of stones. There was a small BBQ hut bordering the lake, with an outside picnic bench for group lunches. 

The veg patches in the prison

Some of the living units

Each unit is typically home to around 5 men, who live in single rooms and share a well-equipped kitchen. Interestingly, despite the collective atmosphere, many of the men I met cooked alone, and unlike other prisons I visited, it wasn’t common to share ingredients and cook and eat each meal together. I wasn’t sure whether this was perhaps due to some of the Finns’ more introverted tendencies and reserved nature (which I noticed more in men than women), or just the way of life here at Sulkava. 

When many people think of prison, they assume mealtimes involve everyone sitting around a big table twice a day and, for the most part - and in the UK in particular - this simply isn’t the case. But the emotional and social benefits of communal dining are well-known, and it’s certainly something I’d like to see more of. But I think it’s important to remember that prison is a traumatic, challenging and emotional time for people. For some, the opportunity to eat together might be a way of navigating this time through positive interactions and the chance to interact. But many people I meet find the idea of eating together everyday intimidating or overwhelming. Ultimately, it’s about choice and having the opportunity to reap the rewards that sharing food around a table could bring if they want to. 

The shared kitchen in one of the living units

The shared living area

The men at Sulkava were told I was visiting and one Lithuanian prisoner wanted to share some thoughts on the food culture of the prison and the self-catering facilities. He’d spent some time typing up his thoughts - in perfect English! - and getting a staff member to print them off. He invited me into his housing unit - one of the only private apartments in Sulkava and home to a bedroom and a small kitchen/diner. 

“Being here and able to cook for myself brings me a sense of normality, dignity and self-sufficiency” he said, “I didn’t cook before prison, but here I’ve had the time and the facilities to learn and this has had a huge emotional and psychological effect on me.” Like most men in prison, he was on a strict protein-led diet in the week (“Porridge with peanut butter and honey and 3 eggs for breakfast, chicken and rice for lunch and maybe a yoghurt and some fruit before bed!”) but weekends were for experimenting in the kitchen and indulging in some comfort food. “Me and another Lithuanian in the prison get together. We make pizzas or burgers from scratch, or I call my mum for her recipes for a taste of home.”

At Sulkava, the men have €8.35 per day for food, and alongside the chillis, tomatoes, radishes and potatoes he grows himself (“I’d never grown anything before prison. Now I can grow my own food.”), he feels like he’s able to eat a balanced diet with this budget. Not for the first time on this trip, I was so impressed to meet people who seemed completely in control of their health and wellbeing and felt the prison actually helped them lead a ‘cleaner life’ with good food at the core. When we ask ourselves “what is prison for?” surely the goal is for people to come out in a better state than when they entered? It was inspiring to see this simple theory in action and Finland’s prisons are safer and more rehabilitative as a result. “I’ve done three sentences in my life and I’ve never seen any violence or assaults” he told me. 

A trip to a Finnish prison isn’t complete without visiting an important part of prison life and life in Finland more generally - the sauna. As I explained to my friends back home that every prison here has a sauna, I was met with total shock and some mild outrage. It’s understandable. The concept of being able to access a sauna during your prison sentence for us Brits is totally alien and would no doubt send most members of the public into a spin. But the fact is most homes in Finland have saunas - it is more than just a tradition, it is truly a way of life and denying prisoners this important part of their weekly (often daily) routine would be at odds with the country’s more rehabilitative approach to prison. Likewise, regular saunas have been proven to increase metabolism, aid weight loss, increase blood circulation, improve cardiovascular function, improve immune function, improve sleep, manage stress and, most of all - aid relaxation. So perhaps it’s no wonder that most of the men I met at Sulkava seemed healthy and content. 

Some thoughts from one of the prisoners at Sulkava about the food

Sulkava’s sauna

“We like it best when we have to smash through the ice” one prisoner told me while overlooking the freezing lake. The sauna fronts on to the water and (as I had experienced the previous night) the ritual isn’t complete without submerging your body into ice cold water for at least 30 seconds when you get out. The men at Sulkava can access the sauna twice a week and although lake submersion isn’t compulsory, I got the feeling it was the preferred way of doing things. Every prison has its own quirks and I’ve witnessed plenty of unique prison rituals over the years, but this had to be the most unusual (but invigorating) one yet. 

I am now back in the UK and reflecting on my time in Scandinavia. I will be continuing my research and publishing a report into my experiences and findings in early 2024. Keep posted on our social channels for more updates in the meantime. A huge thank you to everyone in Finland who made my week so unforgettable and to everyone I met during my trip. Also a big thank you to The Churchill Fellowship for sponsoring the trip and enabling me to travel with my family, which made it even more special.

Lucy x