Parhi will introduce her research project on the history of correctional labour facilities in Finland and focus on letters from the representatives of local municipalities. The letters, sent to the northernmost facility in Finland that used to be close to her home town Oulu (Uleåborg), portrayed local social problems and negotiated ways to deal with them through correctional labour. In practice, the problems were often connected to issues of placement: where should the person in question be sent as they were seen to cause problems in the community. Parhi will present some preliminary findings and talk about possible ways to develop ideas further. She is interested in discussing institutions and local-level decision-making as forms of control and in placing these historical issues in the bigger picture in the field of criminology.