ABSTRACT
Based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with juvenile prisoners, this chapter argues that the knowledge provided by penological literature has led people into a somewhat paradoxical situation. It gives an account of fairness issues in prisons, which locates the prisoners' narratives in their biographical contexts. The chapter also explores to shed light on the internal contradictions and complications, the slips, and discrepancies of perceptions of injustice which are not addressed in the research literature. Albeit this assumption is correct to a certain extent, this chapter argues that accounts are better understood as idiosyncratic interpretations and representations of societal reality in their own right. In adopting a biographical approach, the chapter pursues these often ambivalent and ramified tracks of self-presentations and explores the young men's individual sense of injustice. The findings show that the meanings which young men attach to their experiences in prison are not arbitrary.
