Feeling right: The lateral control of prisoners’ affective self-work in a women's community rehabilitation unit in Finland

Abstract

This article examines how affective self-work is organised and regulated through peer-based interaction in a women's community rehabilitation unit in Finland. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, it develops the concept of affective self-work to capture forms of emotionally mediated self-governance central to contemporary rehabilitative penality. The analysis shows that emotional participation – such as openness, responsiveness, and self-disclosure – becomes a moral obligation embedded in everyday interaction. These expectations are not enforced solely by staff but are actively produced, monitored, and negotiated among residents themselves through lateral control. As residents evaluate, correct, and attune one another's affective conduct, rehabilitation is enacted as a shared, socially organised process. While lateral control extends institutional aims into peer relations, it also introduces unevenness, as not all residents are equally able to meet affective expectations. The article demonstrates how affect functions as a key medium through which penal power operates horizontally within rehabilitative settings.