| [ Prison building ] |
In Gävle lies the old prison standing in an area called South right next to the castle, in reality it is built on a part of the castle gardens. It was inaugurated on the 1st of July as the first of its kind in the country. The prison, which was designed with three floors in the shape of a T, was architected by Carl Fredrik Hjelm. It included 66 light and dark cells, plus a managerial section with among other things kitchen, offices, directors quarters and courtroom. Central heating was catered for by a heating system in the basement and was channeled through the walls and floors in the building horisontally and vertically. In the prison courtyard is a garden run by the prisoners themselves.
The cell section was equipped, in a usual way, with the cells lining the outer walls and with galleries around a skylight. The cells were arranged so that it would be impossible to see into another cell if the two opposite doors were opened simultaneously. |
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The cells measured 2 by 3 metres and were furnished with a fixed cupboard, a wall fixed stool, a spittoon and a toilet seat. Originally the prisoner spent the night in a hammock, which later was exchanged for a bed which could be transformed into a workttop during the daytime. Daylight illumination came from a small barred window situated as high as possible to prevent the prisoner from looking out, which was forbidden. To make doubly sure it was also forbidden to remove the dust that collected on the slanting windowsills, so that the prison guards could check if the prisoners had broken these rules. It was like this in all prisons.
The prison was extended in 1884 to 1885 with a wing in the North, after drawings by the Swedish Prison Systems Boards architect Claes Robert Ljungberg, achieving an extra 29 places. During the 18th century a Gymnasium and a Workshop was added. The prison grounds where not only used for horticulture, dismal occasions also arose. In Sweden the death penalty was first abolished in 1921, but the last execution in this country was at Långholmen on the 23rd of November 1910, when Johan Alfred Andersson Anders`s head fell for the Guillotines blade, effected by Swedens last executioner- Anders Gustav Dalman. In Gävleborgs County the last execution happened a lot earlier, on the 17th March 1893. When the Alta murderer, Per Johan Pettersson, was brought out to the scaffold, which was built up of fifteen 2” planks, on the eastside of the Gävle Prison courtyard. There waiting, was executioner Dalman, in a Gold- braided uniform, with an axe hidden behind his back.
In the year 1913 it was decided that the Gävle prison should take male prisoners from all over the country. Many of them had limited reading and writing capabilities and that was why schooling activities were started in the prison, an example which was followed by the central prisons and the punishment institution in Uppsala. Under one period the Gävle prison was an abode for prisoners without fixed term sentences, this changed in 1981. During the seventies the prison in Gävle was run with a so called ” modified therapeutic society ”, which implies that the interns determined a great deal in the running of things at the prison. During the thirties most of the origional small cell windows were enlarged so that it was possible to see out with a slight effort. In connection with the death penalty being abolished in 1946, the open galleries were closed as was with the other prisons around the country. This was to prevent the prisoners from throwing themselves off the balconies during recreation periods and also to utilize the area during mealtimes and recreation.
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