Normalization of Swedish Prisons (From Western European Penal Systems: A Critical Anatomy, P 169-193, 1995, Vincenzo Ruggiero, Mick Ryan, and Joe Sim, eds. - See NCJ-158665)

• NCJ Number: 158673
• Author(s): K Leander
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 15 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications Ltd
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom
• Note: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, International Crime Statistics Program

Annotation

Sweden has long been acclaimed for its humane correctional policies, but polices shifted in the 1980's and 1990's toward more restrictive and sometimes repressive policies.

Abstract

However, the increasing use of imprisonment, from 13 percent of all sentences in 1975 to 20 percent in the early 1990's, was a trend well in place before the right-center political bloc came to power. Nevertheless, the overall prison population has remained fairly stable through the 1980's. In 1993, fines (police, prosecutorial, and court) accounted for 85 percent of all criminal dispositions, followed by prison (4 percent), waivers of prosecution (4 percent), conditional sentences (3 percent), probation (2 percent), and other sanctions (1 percent). Alternatives to prison include community service, contract drug treatment with probation, and intensive probation supervision. Most prison sentences are for rape, murder, manslaughter, aggravated robbery, and aggravated drug and smuggling offenses. Currently, Sweden is experiencing fundamental change. A shift is occurring from the values of solidarity and inclusion in the Swedish model of imprisonment to the punitive and exclusionary philosophy characterizing the debate today. Tables and 40 references