[lit-ideas] Swedish Prisons
- From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2006 18:36:57 EDT
If I posted this before, apologies....I'm going through old mail and I don't
think I passed this one on. I wonder if they keep track of recidivism or
rehabilitation. I know people in America who would go out their way to commit
a crime to get into such a prison.
Julie Krueger
Yedioth Ahronoth June 12, 2006 _www.ynetnews.com_
(http://www.ynetnews.com/)
10:01 , 06.12.06
(http://www.ynetnews.com/home/0,7340,3083,00.html)
Five-Star Hotel
Israeli prison. Fails to match Swedish standards Photo: Yariv Katz
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Israelis enjoying life in Swedish prison
Three Israelis jailed in Scandinavian country turn down offer to continue
serving their sentence in homeland, explain 'here we are treated with steaks,
sex and private television airing World Cup games for free'
Itamar Eichner
The Israeli prisoners in Sweden are unwilling to hear about a possibility of
continuing to serve their sentence in an Israeli prison. The reason: Prisons
in the Scandinavian country resemble a five-star hotel.
Israeli prisoners jailed worldwide usually beg authorities to extradite them
to Israel in order to continue serving their sentence in their homeland.
Despite their pleas, they are usually turned down.
In Sweden, however, it appears that the imprisonment conditions are so good
that three Israelis jail there are not even considering leaving. Every
prisoner has his own cell with a television airing the World Cup games for
free;
every six months, the prisoner gets to tour the streets of Stockholm
accompanied by a police car; and the highlight â every prisoner has a the
right to a
three-day conjugal right in a three-room luxury apartment in the prison.
Israel and Sweden have signed an agreement enabling prisoners to serve the
rest of their sentences in their homelands.
Jacob Shoshani, the Israeli consul-general to Stockholm, turned to the three
Israelis held in the biggest Swedish prison Sodertalje, not far from the
Swedish capital, and offered them to sign forms which will enable them to be
transferred to an Israeli prison. He was surprised, however, when two of them
avoided him and asked him to leave them alone and not bother them.
Sparkling clean cell, modern kitchen
The prisoners provided him with multiple and diverse reasons for their
decision: The prison cell is sparkling clean, and over the weekend the prison
does
not serve food and each prisoner is allowed to order a variety of raw
materials at a limited budget in order to fix himself a meal. One of the
Israelis
even told the consul that every Saturday he prepares great steaks for his
fellow prisoners.
The kitchen is modern and sophisticated, like in a restaurant. In addition,
the prisoners are offered a variety of activities such as football and
basketball games.
Consul Shoshani approached one of the prison's commanders and asked why the
prisoners are given such exaggerated conditions and whether this might not
encourage people to commit crimes.
"I left with a feeling of a hotel, rather than a prison," Shoshani concluded
in his report to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.
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