What's Right with Sweden? Prisons Close as Demand Falls

[unhappycamper]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/11/12-0



With focus on rehabilitation and more reasonable sentencing, nation shutters four state-run jails

What's Right with Sweden? Prisons Close as Demand Falls
- Jon Queally, staff writer
Published on Tuesday, November 12, 2013 by Common Dreams

As study after study (after study) in the United States over the last several decades have shown a prison population explosion that demands additional, larger, more expensive—and increasingly privatized—prisons, the trend in Sweden might hold a lesson on how to end the ever-expanding incarceration rate.

In fact, instead of building new prisons or holding steady with the number they have, the Swedish government—citing a rapid fall in demand—has now ordered the closure of four prisons.

"We have seen an out-of-the-ordinary decline in the number of inmates," Nils Öberg, the head of Sweden's prison and probation services, explained to the Guardian. "Now we have the opportunity to close down a part of our infrastructure that we don't need at this point of time."

~snip~

At 112th in the world, Sweden has long been rated well in indexes that calculate the percentage of its population the remains incarcerated. In contrast, the United States has the most heavily-jailed population in the world.

[TBF]

1. It probably goes hand in hand with having a strong safety net --

There is a cost to that. Sweden has very high tax rates: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Sweden

I think they are on to something. Instead of letting billionaires accumulate more and more they actually have a collective mindset. VERY different from this country.

[brer cat]

2. The emphasis is on rehabilitation.

I think the US mindset is focused on punishment. Big difference. Now, I know there are truly evil people who need to be put away and never see life again in the general population, but we have a large prison over-population due to too frequent incarceration of non violent people (e.g., "war" on drugs). Having for-profit private prisons only makes the situation here worse.

[L0oniX]

3. ...and here we close the state-run jails and open private for profit ones.

[idwiyo]

4. k&r

[Doctor_J]

5. this is what happens when jails are actually corrections facilities instead of

profit centers