Annica Skarphagen is a teacher at a closed women’s prison in security class two, which is the highest security class for female prisoners. Teaching in this setting is special and the people who work here are also locked in. 

“Early on, it was not easy to deal with this situation and all the security that is required. Being locked in and not being able to move freely was difficult, but now I can’t imagine working anywhere else.”

Annica Skarphagen outside Ystad prison

Women who have received prison sentences serve them at the prisons in Hinseberg, Färingsö, Sagsjön, Ljustadalen, Ringsjön or Ystad. The staff are trained in dealing with the particular demands of working with female prisoners. Annica Skarphagen, who teaches English and German at upper-secondary level and is a certified teacher of Swedish for Immigrants and Swedish as a Second Language at primary and lower-secondary level, has worked at Ystad Prison for 17 years. 

 “You could say that Ystad Prison is a community within a community. I can’t move around the area freely, so to get to the building I work in, I have to go through four gates. I can’t go out for lunch – instead I’m inside the prison until I go through the final gate to the outside world at the end of the working day. I can’t have any open doors or windows and there is always a prison officer responsible for supervision while I’m teaching. It is a very special working environment, but I really enjoy my job.”

Many of the women in Ystad Prison are serving drug-related sentences. Annica and her students share the space with people who are on a drug treatment programme, and there are times during the day when everyone is let in from the learning centre and from the drug treatment programme at the same time. The inmates are constantly being collected and returned, so Annica and her fellow teacher are always accompanied by prison officers with supervisory duties. Initially she found it difficult to sit next to someone whom she knew had committed terrible crimes.

“But we want everyone to be able to find a way out of criminality, and my work contributes to that. I have a unique opportunity to be a teacher who can provide support and help to the people I meet.”

She has seven or eight students at a time in the room, and each class is three hours long. During that time, she can focus on each individual for a longer period of time and give them the support they need. The people she meets may never have gone to school, and some cannot read or write, while others have studied mathematics at upper-secondary level, or have good grades but don’t have grades from all the subjects needed for an upper-secondary qualification.

 “We have time for a lot more in these lessons than a teacher in an ordinary school would. I can pay attention to everyone’s needs and circumstances. The women don’t always have the energy to study as they are often overwhelmed by worry about their children. In those cases, it’s important to motivate them to keep going,” says Skarphagen. “We provide education on site and remotely, and in more subjects than mine. We offer mathematics and sometimes help with extra tuition. Remote teaching opens up many possibilities for our students.” 

What do they want to do when they are released?

“Lawyers, social workers or addiction therapists are occupations I often hear my students dream of becoming. Some are aiming to study higher education once they have finished studying here. Some want to learn more English or Swedish to improve their everyday lives. I taught one young woman who was born in Central Europe – she said that if she learned good Swedish, she could travel home and work in the tourist industry. It is wonderful to see that knowledge can help someone see a future outside of criminality.”