It is generally assumed that the normalization of living conditions in prison requires a minimum use of security ‘because in the nature of things security necessarily leads to constraints which exaggerate the differences between life inside and life outside of prisons’ (King and Morgan, 1980: 36).
Based on the analysis of Belgian and Norwegian legislation and participant observation in two Belgian and two Norwegian prisons, this paper argues that this general assumption should be qualified in three ways. First, security and normalization are also mutually reinforcing in the sense that safety and a feeling of security is also part of ‘normal’ or at least ‘desirable’ living conditions. Second, the meaning of any statement about security in relation to normalization differs according to whether the static, organizational, and/or dynamic aspects of security are taken into account. Third and finally, considering security and normalization to be two opposing concepts disregards the fact that in some ways security measures are ‘normal’ both inside and outside prison.
Indeed, it can be argued that security measures are increasingly present outside prison and in this sense not contradictory to normalization.