The Pains of Imprisonment: Coping with Prison from a Biographical Perspective.

The paper will refer to a qualitative longitudinal study which was conducted in juvenile detention centres in East and West Germany (at the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony, funded by the VolksWagen Foundation). The presentation will be focused on one of our central findings: from the perspective of adolescent young men imprisonment is a painful experience. But for many of them it is a promise of change and social integration at the same time. If we would follow their manifest self-interpretations while being incarcerated, imprisonment would be a kind of "success story" (giving structure and offering education) - without denying the influence of a violent subculture. Taking a closer look at the biographies of these young men and following their steps from "inside to outside" over several years we realise, how the experience of prison is revitalising and deepening fundamental conflicts of autonomy. This dynamic will be exemplified by short case examples and the results will be discussed from a double perspective: What conclusions do our findings have not only for theoretical but for practical questions of criminology and the practise of law as well? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]