Scandi Justice: 1/4th of All Convicts Simply Do Not Show Up For Jail, *Which Is Itself Not Illegal!*

Now that's some libertarian thinking! Why shouldn't criminal punishment be voluntary?

It almost sounds like something out of a film, but for the Norwegian Correctional Services (Kriminalomsorgen), the problem is real. 20 percent of convicted criminals simply fail to show up to serve their prison term, according to figures for 2007.

Criminals sentenced to long prison terms are particularly prone to bunking off. Almost every fourth person sentenced to six months or more in prison failed to meet in 2006. The situation is only becoming graver, with a total a 1799 people failing to show up during the whole of last year, compared to as many as 1068 people so far this year.

"It’s difficult to make plans for the prison terms when we have no idea who will show up and who won't," said Ellinor Houm, director of the Norwegian Correctional Services, section for eastern Norway.

What if they threw a prison and no one came?

MattM writes:

Everyone knows that Scandi criminal trials are typically decided by some combination of divination magic and rock fights. But it appears that their criminal justice system is also suffering from another problem: 1/4th of all lutefish-tongued devils convicted and sentenced to prison this year failed to report for their prison sentence. As the article makes clear, this is very rude of the criminals. But failing to show up to prison after you’ve been sentenced is not illegal. (Other activities that are not illegal: snow-humping, the love between a man and a penguin, Uwe Boll worship)

Crime rates in Sweden, incidentally, tend to be higher, sometimes quite a bit higher, than in the uncivilized Wild West of the US. Almost double the per-capita murder rate, 10% more rapes.

posted by Ace at 07:34 PM

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