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Indefinitely Sentenced to DenmarkThe Return to Greenland

NCJ Number
241989
Journal
Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention Volume: 13 Issue: Supplement 1 Dated: 2012 Pages: 57-68
Author(s)
Evy Frantzsen
Date Published
2012
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the effects of infinite punishment in Denmark.
Abstract
Greenlanders who have committed serious crimes may upon mental observation, where they are declared mentally deviant, be sentenced to an indefinite sentence under the Greenlandic criminal code's § 161, part 2. The indefinite sentence has no minimum or maximum time and must be served in a Danish prison, more than 4,000 km away from the convict's home. The author has looked at how many Greenlanders have been sent down to Danish prison during the period from 1979 until 2006, how this arrangement is experienced by the convicts, and how life is when after many years in Danish prison they return home to Greenland. Abstract published by arrangement with Taylor and Francis.