Due to the focus on preventing repeat offences, open prisons have filled up while the total number of inmates has gone down, the Oulu-based daily Kaleva reports.

“THERE are now more inmates than ever before in Finland’s open prisons, despite the fact that the total number of inmates has decreased by over 200 compared to last year, says Esa Vesterbacka, the Director General of the Prison Service in the Criminal Sanctions Agency.

All 900 open prison places are beginning to be full. On the other hand, the number of inmates in regular prisons has gone down.

This development is a result of the new guidelines of the prison administration. The focus is moving from keeping a criminal incarcerated to preventing recidivism. The authorities are attempting to improve inmates’ obedience to the law and social adaptation with the help of open prisons as well as training and rehabilitation.

A proposal on the use of electronic tagging, monitored by GPS tracking, is also a part of the prison administration’s new guidelines. It has been calculated that electronic tagging would save a lot of money for the prison administration. ‘Constructing one place in a regular prison costs 200,000 euros, whereas a GPS tracked electronic tag costs only a few euros,’ Director General Vesterbacka emphasises.”

KALEVA 21 February. HENRIK AHOLA