Pubdate: Thu, 02 Jan 2003
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2003 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Warren Hoge

FINNISH PRISONS: NO GATES OR ARMED GUARDS

KERAVA, Finland - Going by the numbers, Antti Syvajarvi is a loser. He is a 
prison inmate in Finland - the country that jails fewer of its citizens 
than any other in the European Union.

Still, he counts himself fortunate.

"If I have to be a prisoner," he said, "I'm happy I'm one in Finland 
because I trust the Finnish system."

So, evidently, do law-abiding Finns, even though their system is Europe's 
most lenient and would probably be the object of soft-on-criminals derision 
in many societies outside of the Nordic countries.

In polls measuring what national institutions they admire the most, Finns 
put their criminal-coddling police in the No. 1 position.

The force is the smallest in per capita terms in Europe, but it has a 
corruption-free reputation and it solves 90 percent of its serious crimes.

"I know this system sounds like a curiosity," said Markku Salminen, a 
former beat patrolman and homicide detective who is now the director 
general of the prison service in charge of punishments. "But if you visit 
our prisons and walk our streets, you will see that this very mild version 
of law enforcement works. I don't blame other countries for having harsher 
systems because they have different histories and politics, but this model 
works for us."

Finland, a relatively classless culture with a Scandinavian belief in the 
benevolence of the state and a trust in its civic institutions, is 
something of a laboratory for gentle justice. The kinds of economic and 
social disparities that can produce violence don't exist in Finland's 
welfare state society, street crime is low, and law enforcement officials 
can count on support from an uncynical public.

Look in on Finland's penal institutions, whether those the system 
categorizes as "open" or "closed," and it is hard to tell when you've 
entered the world of custody. "This is a closed prison," Esko Aaltonen, 
warden of the Hameenlinna penitentiary, said in welcoming a visitor. "But 
you may have noticed you just drove in, and there was no gate blocking you."

Walls and fences have been removed in favor of unobtrusive camera 
surveillance and electronic alert networks. Instead of clanging iron gates, 
metal passageways and grim cells, there are linoleum-floored hallways lined 
with living spaces for inmates that resemble dormitory rooms more than 
lockups in a slammer.

Guards are unarmed and wear either civilian clothes or uniforms free of 
emblems like chevrons and epaulettes. "There are 10 guns in this prison, 
and they are all in my safe," Mr. Aaltonen said.

"The only time I take them out is for transfer of prisoners."

At the "open" prisons, inmates and guards address each other by first name. 
Prison superintendents go by nonmilitary titles like manager or governor, 
and prisoners are sometimes referred to as "clients" or, if they are 
youths, "pupils."

"We are parents, that's what we are," said Kirsti Njeminen, governor of the 
Kerava prison that specializes in rehabilitating young offenders like Mr. 
Syvajarvi.

Generous home leaves are available, particularly as the end of a sentence 
nears, and for midterm inmates, there are houses on the grounds, with 
privacy assured, where they can spend up to four days at a time with 
visiting spouses and children.

"We believe that the loss of freedom is the major punishment, so we try to 
make it as nice inside as possible," said Merja Toivonen, a supervisor at 
Hameenlinna.

Natalia Leppamaki, 39, a Russian immigrant convicted of drunken driving, 
switched off a sewing machine she was using to make prison clothing and 
picked up on Ms. Toivonen's point. "Here you have work, you can eat and you 
can do sports, but home is home, and I don't think you'll see me in here 
again," she said.

Thirty years ago, Finland had a rigid model, inherited from neighboring 
Russia, and one of the highest rates of imprisonment in Europe. But then 
academics provoked a thoroughgoing rethinking of penal policy, with their 
argument that it ought to reflect the region's liberal theories of social 
organization.

"Finnish criminal policy is exceptionally expert-oriented," said Tapio 
Lappi-Seppala, director of the National Research Institute of Legal Policy. 
"We believe in the moral-creating and value-shaping effect of punishment 
instead of punishment as retribution."

He asserted that over the last two decades, more than 40,000 Finns had been 
spared prison, $20 million in costs had been saved, and the crime rate had 
gone down to relatively low Scandinavian levels.

Mr. Salminen, the prison service director, pulled out a piece of paper and 
drew three horizontal lines. "This first level is self-control, the second 
is social control and the third is officer control. In Finland," he 
explained, "we try to intervene at this first level so people won't get to 
the other two."

The men and women who work in the prisons also back the softer approach. 
"There are officers who were here 20 and 30 years ago, and they say it was 
much tougher to work then, with more people trying to escape and more 
prison violence," said Kaisa Tammi-Moilanen, 32, governor of the open ward 
at Hameenlinna.

She conceded that there were people who took advantage of the leniency. 
Risto Nikunen, 41, a grizzled drifter who has never held a job and has been 
in prison 11 times, was asked outside his drug rehabilitation unit if he 
might be one of them. "Well," he shrugged, "many people do come to prison 
to take a break and try to get better again."

Prison officials can give up to 20 days solitary confinement to inmates as 
punishment for infractions like fighting or possessing drugs, though the 
usual term is from three to five days. Mr. Aaltonen said he tried to avoid 
even that by first talking out the problem with the offending inmate.

Finnish courts mete out four general punishments - a fine, a conditional 
sentence, which amounts to probation, community service and an 
unconditional sentence. Even this last category is made less harsh by a 
practice of letting prisoners out after only half their term is served. 
Like the rest of the countries of the European Union, Finland has no death 
penalty.

According to the Ministry of Justice in Helsinki, there are a little more 
than 2,700 prisoners in Finland, a country of 5.2 million people, or 52 for 
every 100,000 inhabitants. Ministry figures show the comparable rate is 702 
per 100,000 in the United States, 664 in Russia and 131 in Portugal, the 
highest in the European Union.

Finland's chief worry now is the rise in drug-related crimes that do result 
in prison sentences and the growing number of Russians and Estonians, who 
Mr. Lappi-Seppala said were introducing organized-crime activities into 
Finland.

Finns credit their press and their politicians with keeping the 
law-and-order debate civil and not strident. "Our newspapers are not full 
of sex and crime," Mr. Salminen said. "And there is no pressure on me to 
get tough on criminals from populist-issue politicians like there would be 
in a lot of other countries."

One reason why the Finnish public may tolerate their policy of limited 
punishment is that victims receive compensation payments from the 
government. Mrs. Tammi-Moilanen was asked if this was enough to keep them 
from getting angry over the system of gentle justice.

"My feeling is that victims wouldn't feel that justice is better done by 
giving very severe punishment," she said. "We don't believe in an eye for 
an eye, we are a bit more civilized than that, I hope."

Mr. Syvajarvi, a muscular 21-year-old with close-cropped hair who become a 
heroin addict at age 14, received a six-year sentence for drug selling and 
assaults. As a young offender, he will serve only a third of that time, and 
he is expected to be out in a year.

He is now the appointed "big brother" peer counselor to other youths in the 
jail, must submit to random drug checks to make sure he remains off the 
habit and has undergone training with anger management specialists that he 
says has prepared him to rejoin society with a new outlook.

"Before, I wanted to be like those drug dealers in the States," he said, 
adding in English, "I was a gangster wannabe." He went into a boxer's 
crouch and popped punches in the air. "I used to think the most important 
thing was to stand up for yourself.

"Now I've learned that it takes more courage to run away."
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D