The Finnish Sentences Enforcement Act lists the following requirements of the prison system:
Punishment is a mere loss of liberty: The enforcement of sentence must be organised so that the sentence is only loss of liberty. Other restrictions can be used to the extent that the security of custody and the prison order require. Prevention of harm, promoting of placement into society: Punishment shall be enforced so that it does not unnecessarily impede but, if possible, promotes a prisoner's placement in society. Harms caused by imprisonment must be prevented, if possible. Normality: The circumstances in a penal institution must be organised so that they correspond to those prevailing in the rest of society. Justness, respect for human dignity, prohibition of discrimination: Prisoners must be treated justly and respecting their human dignity. Prisoners may not be placed without grounds in an unequal position because of their race, nationality or ethnic origin, skin colour, language, gender, age, family status, sexual orientation or state of health or religion, social opinion, political or labour activities or other such similar thing. Special needs of juvenile prisoners: When implementing a sanction sentenced to a juvenile offender, special attention must be paid to the special needs caused by the prisoner's age and stage of development. Hearing of prisoner: A prisoner must be heard when a decision is being made concerning his/her placing in dwelling, work or other activity and some other important matter connected to his/her treatment.
Prevention of harm, promoting of placement into society: Punishment shall be enforced so that it does not unnecessarily impede but, if possible, promotes a prisoner's placement in society. Harms caused by imprisonment must be prevented, if possible.
Normality: The circumstances in a penal institution must be organised so that they correspond to those prevailing in the rest of society. Justness, respect for human dignity, prohibition of discrimination: Prisoners must be treated justly and respecting their human dignity. Prisoners may not be placed without grounds in an unequal position because of their race, nationality or ethnic origin, skin colour, language, gender, age, family status, sexual orientation or state of health or religion, social opinion, political or labour activities or other such similar thing.
Special needs of juvenile prisoners: When implementing a sanction sentenced to a juvenile offender, special attention must be paid to the special needs caused by the prisoner's age and stage of development.
Hearing of prisoner: A prisoner must be heard when a decision is being made concerning his/her placing in dwelling, work or other activity and some other important matter connected to his/her treatment.
Finland's population of five million has adapted to life under peripheral conditions in northern Europe. Finns make up 35% of the world's population north of latitude 60ºN. Finland is sparsely populated, with only 17 people per km². http://finland.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=25785
Finland's population of five million has adapted to life under peripheral conditions in northern Europe. Finns make up 35% of the world's population north of latitude 60ºN. Finland is sparsely populated, with only 17 people per km².
http://finland.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=25785
It's so bloody cold and dark for so long that the few who live there are in no mood to go out even for a fun crime - and partly because they're recovering from the latest alcoholic binge - including the police :-) Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner - that I moved to Nice.
There are many, many countries that consume more per cap annually than Finns. I will grant you one anecdotal fact though - most of the Finnish cops I know are very fond of a tipple. The Chief of the Fraud squad lives in the next road and we have had many discussions on single malts ;-) You can't be me, I'm taken
we have had many discussions on single malts
Is that "on" as in "about", or "on" as in "under the influence"? :) The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman
But it breaks down when you look at urban/rural crime distribution in the US: Per capita, the rural states have somewhat more murders, rape, Bush voters and other dysfunctional behaviours than the urban ones. It's not a big effect, but it's there.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
My guess would be that if you have a retributive legal system, you'll have more prisoners, and if you have a rehabilitative legal system, you'll have fewer. Not so much because crime levels will differ (they will, but surely not by a factor of five or ten), as because incarceration rates for the same crimes will differ. If you imprison people for possession of trivial amounts of hash or PCP, you'll have more people in prison than if you don't, even if usage may be lower (big "if" there, by the way).
As for crime rates, your model makes a lot of sense. Also, the feeling of improvement in one's lot in life (or at least not a deterioration), and the feeling that you can get ahead more reliably, if not necessarily faster, by not cheating than by cheating.
In the USA we mostly abandoned public executions by the 20th century. Unfortunately that did little to diminish the blood-lust that so many who attended such spectacles experienced. Instead, that lust has driven the clamor for maintenance of the death penalty. It remains our unacknowledged worship of the God of Death. As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
worship of the God of Death.
if there's one thing worse than a fanatic, it's a thanatic. ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
There were 23,326 cases of murder and non negligent homicide, in the US during 1994, 21,606 in 1995, 19,645 in 1996, 18,209 in 1997, 16,914 in 1998, 15,522 in 1999, 15,517 in 2000, 16,037 in 2001, 16,204 in 2002, 16,528 in 2003, 16,148 in 2004, 16,692 in 2005, 17,034 in 2006, and 15,872 in 2007. That's 225,164 persons sentenced to death by their "peers" with no due process whatsoever over a 14 year period.
Since 1976, 17 States have executed no one, 11 States have executed 1-3 persons, 3 have executed 4-6 persons. Only two States have executed over 100 persons in the last 32 years. Virginia with 103 and Texas with 431. Less than 1200 persons in all were executed in the US following trials and generally lengthy appeals processes over the past 32 years.
One can imagine which circumstance the god of death would consider the greater offering. Maybe its the belief that the symbolic consent and involvement of the masses during State executions leads to eternal damnation of all those responsible vs. just the one soul that commits murder. I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears
My own crazy recommendation would be to restructure our society in such ways as would reduce violence between its members. Increase the peace. Anyone who truly believes that they can fully insulate themselves and those they love from the violence endemic to US society is deluding themselves. Those who do not care about the violence because they think they are insulated are of dubious moral integrity.
Our economy seems set up always to be dominated by some of the most rapacious among us and organized mostly to facilitate their rapacity. In my view one of the chief manifestations of that rapacity is through "trickle down" violence. That is what we need to change. Focusing on policing the final manifestations of that violence only serves to contain it to some degree. Policing will never really succeed in greatly reducing violence, IMO. And then the sensational violence serves to distract from the rapacity at the top. As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
In situations like this I like to remind myself, and others who will listen, of those who have paid the ultimate price for society's shortcomings, the horrifyingly large numbers of our fellow man who have become the victims of senseless killings. We owe them more than casual mention. I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears
Thank you for this diary. I intended to reply directly to your personal experiences earlier, but my reply was wiped clean by a malfunctioning electrical system - so I gave up. I quit a career in law enforcement years ago owing in large part to some of the frustrations and depression you feel so I do respect your continuing in the field of criminal justice for so long under such conditions. I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears
The information is the latest available at the end of October 2006.
USA: 738 Russian Federation: 611 Luxembourg: 167 Hungary: 156 England & Wales: 148 Spain: 145 Scotland: 139 Portugal: 121 Netherlands: 128 China: 118 ("Sentenced prisoners only.") Canada:107 Austria: 105 Italy: 104 Germany: 95 Belgium: 91 Turkey: 91 Greece: 90 France: 85 Northern Ireland: 84 Switzerland: 83 Sweden: 82 Finland: 75 Ireland: 72 Denmark: 77 Norway: 66 Japan: 62
Roy Walmsley is an honorary consultant to the United Nations and an Associate of the International Centre for Prison Studies (ICPS), King's College, London. At ICPS he is director of the World Prison Brief, a comprehensive online database of information on the prison systems of the world, which is available free of charge at www.prisonstudies.org In June 2006 he produced the World Female Imprisonment List, which is also published by ICPS and complements the World Prison Population List and the World Prison Brief.
