Preface

The study was started in 1990 on an initiative from the Danish Ministry of Justice. The main purpose of the study was to investigate whether solitary confinement in remand prisoners represents a mental health hazard. There had been an ongoing debate on this question for decades without a scientifically based and unbiased knowledge on the subject. I was employed as a research fellow from 1991 to 1995 on Bispebjerg Hospital, University of Copenhagen. The study demanded collaboration with and involved several institutions (The Clinic of Forensic Psychiatry, The Western Prison, The Ministry of Justice, several psychiatric departments and the police just to mention a few). All contributed to a good working atmosphere. I would like to thank our secretary Ruth Egholm and psychologist Pia U. Hamann for valuable help during the collection of data. Very special thanks goes to my two main collaborators, consultant in psychiatry Dorte Sestoft and psychologist Tommy Lillebæk. The many hours we spent together in collecting data, discussing, arguing, writing – and having fun – have been some of my most encouraging and fruitful professional experiences. The study was followed during the whole course by a supervision group consisting of chief psychologist Birgitte Mejsholm, consultant in psychiatry Peter Kramp, and professor and head of the medical faculty Ralf Hemmingsen. I really appreciate their contribution and thank them warmly for their inspiring and valuable advices and discussions. I am especially grateful to Peter Kramp for being attentive to all minor and major problems during the study – and solving them almost instantly. I am also very indebted to our main statistician assistant professor Gorm Gabrielsen for creating order in the chaos of thousands and thousands of data – which also chief psychologist and assistant professor Erik Lykke Mortensen contributed substantially in solving. I am grateful to the Justitsministeriet (Ministry of Justice) for financing the whole study and to the Direktoratet for Kriminalforsorgen (Department of Prisons and Probation) for financing the present publication. Finally I would like to thank my family – Musse, Mei Mei and Nana – for love, support, reading and commenting this thesis, with patience – and impatience.