According to a report in the British newspaper the Guardian, the number of prisoners in Swedish jails dropped by 6 percent in each of 2011 and 2012 --- with a similar reduction in headcount expected both this year and next. "We have seen an out-of-the-ordinary decline in the number of inmates," said Nils Öberg, the director-general of Sweden's prison and probation services. "Now we have the opportunity to close down a part of our infrastructure that we don't need at this point of time." Sweden’s prison population peaked at 5,722 in 2004, according to official data, and fell to 4,852 by 2012 (out of a total population of about 9.5 million in the country). As a result, the prison service has this year closed down prisons in the towns of Åby, Håja, Båtshagen, and Kristianstad, two of which will probably be sold and two of which will be passed for temporary use to other government authorities. "We certainly hope that the efforts we invest in rehabilitation and preventing relapse of crime has had an impact, but we don't think that this could explain the entire drop of 6 percent," he said. "We are not at the point of concluding that this is a long-term trend and that this is a change in paradigm," Öberg said. "What we are certain of is that the pressure on the criminal justice system has dropped markedly in recent years." Moreover, in an opinion piece he wrote for the DN newspaper of Sweden, Oberg indicated that the government needs to increase rehabilitation programs, enabling prisoners to function better in society once they're released. One partial explanation for the sudden drop in admissions may be that Swedish courts have given more lenient sentences for drug offences following a ruling of the country's supreme court in 2011. According to Öberg, there were about 200 fewer people serving sentences for drug offences in Sweden last March than a year previously. Hanns von Hofer, a criminology professor at Stockholm University, said that much of the fall in prison numbers could be attributed to a recent shift in policy towards probationary sanctions instead of short prison sentences for minor thefts, drugs offences and violent crimes. In contrast, according to the International Centre for Prison Studies, the United States has the largest prison population on earth – about 2.24 million – which translates to a rate of 716 inmates per 100,000 people in the country (vs. about 51 prisoners per 100,000 people in Sweden).
– Seems like a good problem to have: Sweden is shutting down four prisons and a detention center because it doesn't have enough inmates to fill them, reports the Guardian. The move follows a 6% drop in inmate numbers from 2011 to 2012, with similar numbers expected this year. What gives? The leading factors seem to be an increased focus on rehab and fewer jail sentences for drug crimes. But "we are not at the point of concluding that this is a long-term trend and that this is a change in paradigm," says the top prison official. "What we are certain of is that the pressure on the criminal justice system has dropped markedly in recent years." For comparison's sake, the US has 2.24 million people in jail, for a rate of 716 inmates per 100,000 residents. Sweden has 4,852 in prison for a rate of 51 inmates per 100,000, notes the International Business Times.