In Swedish prisons, spiritual care is available to all inmates regardless of religious affiliation. It is organised by Sweden’s Christen Council (Sveriges kristna råd), which connects the churches and other religious communities on the one hand and the Swedish Prison and Probation Service (Kriminalvården) on the other (Sveriges kristna råd 2023). Similarly, the Swedish Muslim Council (Sveriges muslimska råd) is responsible for the spiritual care of Muslim inmates.
This study focuses on spiritual care and how it is practised and experienced by spiritual care providers in Swedish prisons. It aims to understand how conditions in prisons of different security classes affect spiritual care practice and what strategies spiritual care providers use to help prisoners create and maintain their religiosity. Therefore, the study focuses on the experiences and practices of spiritual care providers who present different religious traditions. The study is based on five semi-structured interviews with prison spiritual care providers working in different Swedish regions. To understand their experiences and practices, the concept of lived religion is applied.
Analysis shows that the prison context strongly influences spiritual care practices, especially isolation, strict rules of behaviour, and interpersonal interaction. Spiritual care is usually provided through individual and group conversations. Religious rituals, services, and reading of religious texts occur to a lesser extent. However, spiritual care practices often transcend religious boundaries and have a transformative role in inmates' lives.