‘Prison is not for punishment in Sweden. We get people into better shape’ With prisoner numbers falling and jails closing, Swedish criminal justice works, says director-general Nils Öberg By Erwin James, The Guardian “Our role is not to punish. The punishment is the prison sentence: they have been deprived of their freedom. The punishment is that they are with us,” says Nils Öberg, director-general of Sweden’s prison and probation service. Öberg, 54, is giving the annual Longford lecture on penal reform in London tomorrow, where he will explain how, in stark contrast to the UK, Sweden is closing prisons and reducing the prison population. Since 2004, Swedish prisoner numbers have fallen from 5,722 to 4,500 out of a population of 9.5 million, and last year four of the country’s 56 prisons were closed and parts of other jails mothballed. In contrast, the prison population in England and Wales is 85,000 out of a population of 57 million. With reoffending rates at about 40% – less than half of those in the UK and most other European countries – does he attribute this success to the country’s effective policies on prisoner rehabilitation? “We obviously believe that it is part of the explanation; we hope we are doing something right. But it’s going to be very difficult to prove that scientifically. We are increasing our efforts all the time,” he says. Full Story pls see link: theguardian/society/2014/nov/26/prison-sweden-not-punishment-nils-oberg
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 16:27:26 +0000
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