Sweden Is Closing Many Prisons Due to Lack of Prisoners

Source

Since 2004, the prison population of Sweden has been dwindling by 1% each year, and between 2011 and 2012 dropped by 6%. It is anticipated that the 6% drop will continue through this year and next.

Being a resident of the US I wondered what effect such a drop might look like applied to the prison system we have, a prison system system raging on the steroids of "private" commerce.

Granted, I find it difficult to imagine the 'culture' of the American justice system simply changing from one of punishment to one of rehabilitation as things are here. After all, most prisoners represent revenue for some influential association of penal industries. These are the associations that use metrics like their "number of employees" to bolster the political appeal of their cause..., no mercy, and a jaded approach to anyone who can be made into a criminal.

...Decline partly put down to strong focus on rehabilitation and more lenient sentences for some offences...

The idea seems appealing, considering what American tax-payers fork out to support the Federal and State penal systems in general. But Sweden's population is of course, only a fraction of that of the U.S.

The US has a prison population of 2,239,751, equivalent to 716 people per 100,000. China ranks second with 1,640,000 people behind bars, or 121 people per 100,000, while Russia's inmates are 681,600, amounting to 475 individuals per 100,000.

Brazilian prisons hold 548,003 citizens, 274 people per 100,000; finally, India's prison population amounts to 385,135, with a per capita rate of just 30 inmates per 100,000 citizens.

What do you think?

Sweden...........it might not be so bad to live there...........

Honestly though, this should be something we should strive for here, but it will be very difficult due to the money machines that prisons are.

reply to post by solongandgoodnight


And if Hillary is elected I'm go'in there. It may be cold but it still sounds inviting.

you about covered my theory as well, so i have little to add except, nice thread and on the money, pun intended.

Man I wish we had this problem. Instead we get to deal with overcrowding and more prisons as the government creates new laws all the time to make another sector of the US population criminals by the stroke of a pen.

Maybe Swedes don't need prisons because they are all crooks It's the Finn in me.

Good for them.

But it does make you wonder how in the hell the U.S. has so many prisoners compared to everyone else.

Maybe it's the draconian sentences people receive. Or maybe due to the growing lack of equality. It's something I've been wondering for sometime now. There has to be some reason behind it, or at least multiple intertwining reasons.

But on the upside, according to the FBI's website, pretty much all types of crimes in the U.S. have been dropping since the 90's. But we still have more people behind bars than anyone else.

Hmmm, I wonder..

Sweden is just on a higher level...

Land of the Free??

Sweden!!

reply to post by Lingweenie


it's because a lot of prisons are very profitable. that's really about it. that's why sh*tty laws are put into place to make everyone a criminal in some form.

reply to post by Lingweenie


It's the drug war.

Drug Offenders in the Correctional System

Federal: On Dec. 31, 2011, there were 197,050 sentenced prisoners under federal jurisdiction. Of these, 94,600 were serving time for drug offenses, 14,900 for violent offenses, 10,700 for property offenses, and 69,000 for "public order" offenses (of which 22,100 were sentenced for immigration offenses, 29,800 for weapons offenses, and 17.100 for "other").

State: On Dec. 31, 2011, there were 1,341,804 sentenced prisoners under state jurisdiction. Of these, 225,242 were serving time for drug offenses, 710,875 for violent offenses, 245,351 for property offenses, 141,803 for "public order" offenses (which include weapons, drunk driving, court offenses, commercialized vice, morals and decency offenses, liquor law violations, and other public-order offenses), and 18,534 for "other/unspecified".

Blame states' 3 strike rules, they are super draconian by nature. To think that you could legislate morality is the most absurd thing the government has ever attempted. You'd think they would have learned their lesson with the Prohibition, but nope, Prohibition 2.0 is still going and has created some of the biggest and most dangerous criminal organizations in the world thanks to an infinite profit margin (and CIA funding).

Did anyone else think "Ikea built prisons" and then how bad of an idea that is LOLOL

The Swedes apparently are in need of more privatized correctional institution, shareholder-profit-generating, victimless crime incarceration laws, like we have here in the Divided States of Orwellika.

Somebody could send them some of our lawyers to help with that.

reply to post by Biigs


Lol I just had a picture of after having assembled the prison from standard Ikea shipping box, many cell doors hanging loose due to missing parts and someone leaning on the prison wall only to fall through it because it was made from cheap particle board.

Krazysh0t
reply to post by Lingweenie

 

It's the drug war.

Drug Offenders in the Correctional System

Federal: On Dec. 31, 2011, there were 197,050 sentenced prisoners under federal jurisdiction. Of these, 94,600 were serving time for drug offenses, 14,900 for violent offenses, 10,700 for property offenses, and 69,000 for "public order" offenses (of which 22,100 were sentenced for immigration offenses, 29,800 for weapons offenses, and 17.100 for "other").

State: On Dec. 31, 2011, there were 1,341,804 sentenced prisoners under state jurisdiction. Of these, 225,242 were serving time for drug offenses, 710,875 for violent offenses, 245,351 for property offenses, 141,803 for "public order" offenses (which include weapons, drunk driving, court offenses, commercialized vice, morals and decency offenses, liquor law violations, and other public-order offenses), and 18,534 for "other/unspecified".

Blame states' 3 strike rules, they are super draconian by nature. To think that you could legislate morality is the most absurd thing the government has ever attempted. You'd think they would have learned their lesson with the Prohibition, but nope, Prohibition 2.0 is still going and has created some of the biggest and most dangerous criminal organizations in the world thanks to an infinite profit margin (and CIA funding).

Yeah it's true that a lot of prisoners are there due to drugs. And usually Cannabis is the drug that most people are caught using. And lets face it, the criminalization of cannabis has gotten out of hand. Since it's made out to be something horrible, but in reality it's not nearly as bad as suggested. No other drug on the market has as many medical benefits compared to cannabis.

Not to mention drugs such as crack yields pretty extreme jail time compared to regular coc aine. The only difference between crack and coc aine I believe is crack adds like water and baking soda. And if memory serves me right, crack users gain about 4 times more jail time than coc aine. And some people have viewed that as an attempt to try and jail black people more heavily, which is absurd.

And on top of that, if people are charged with a felony, you can kiss some of your rights goodbye. It'll be pretty hard finding a descent job, thus making people more inclined to go break the law even more. People have to make money some how, and making money illegally is risky, but creates a larger payday.

reply to post by Lingweenie


Exactly, just the way the for-profit prisons want it. That way they can get repeat customers. They don't have any vested interest in actually helping these people. It's extremely sick how our prison system is implemented and if we would just get rid of the drug war, for-profit prisons would go the way of the dodo bird.

solongandgoodnight
reply to post by Lingweenie

 

it's because a lot of prisons are very profitable. that's really about it. that's why sh*tty laws are put into place to make everyone a criminal in some form.

Yeah i can agree, mostly because the private prison industry has been booming in recent years in the U.S. And when you make criminals profitable, people may try and get judges to give the accused longer sentences. Because at that point the criminals pretty much belong to them, and I guess you could even consider them a commodity at that point. Since they gain a certain amount of money from each prisoner they house. And I assume that they also get them to do work for them, to further their profits. And when you think about it, it gives a pretty sickly feeling to the stomach, at least to me.

I think a good education system is the key to less corruption and less crime. great news, S&F

reply to post by Maxmars


Look at their models...societal, educational, penal..everything. Adapt it to suit, and apply it.

That's what i think.

Well before jumping with the joy this is intresting because there has not been real decrease of crimes.


The answer why they are closing down prisons might be more sinister than these "news" gives. There is a lot of trouble going on in biggest cities in Sweden like Malmö and Stockholm. Most crimes in these citites are hate and racial crimes between native swedes and immigrants which are mostly from islamic countries. Sharia Law is in the streets and swedish police system is powerless and so is the goverment.

Swedish goverment don´t give actual data how many of their prisoners are immigrants and most of the crimes are rape. This is same with every country in EU, they are beautifying their numbers.. because they totally F...d up.

reply to post by dollukka


That's a very enticing bit of information there.

Frankly, it's the reason I am inclined to hold the FBI numbers in suspicion.

I am fully aware of instances where law-enforcement agencies have 'focused' their metric reporting in such a manner as to be useful for the media spin. While in and of itself, it would seem a sound public relation strategy; it is based upon the idea that the citizens they serve need to be schmoozed into accepting their agenda..., because they know better.

Why the image of Americans is the way it is overseas can be reflected against this piece I found. Apparently, we are to believe that the Swedish penal system is an ideal we should strive for; if we did though, we might see their 'exclusions' magnified by our proportionally larger population.

Something in Europe that almost never gets talked about here is the apparent hostile environment for immigrants, and perhaps a bit of Orwellian social-engineering that seems intent on forcing what appears to be an unwelcome integration of cultures.

I feel fortunate that in the Americas, we never had to be convinced to accept immigrants..., as only the most obtuse realize, the experiment of integrating cultures and societies is thus far working more or less reasonably (at least, it hasn't failed outright, yet.)

Crime is a social thing. Criminals are, by definition, anti-social; and disinclined to respect the constraints of a social doctrine. Sadly, I can't speak with certainty as to whether rehabilitation has any priority in the eyes of those who fill the prisons with the accused.