At the children’s rights organization Bris, they are very worried about the new proposal and believe that it testifies to a shift in the view of children.
– That children no longer have a special position as children in the legal system, but instead children are dehumanized and seen as only perpetrators. Children should not be punished in the first place but rehabilitated, says Anna Dorrian, child rights lawyer at Bris.
“Did not work”
Sweden abolished youth prisons in 1979 and that for a reason, says Henrik Tham, professor emeritus of criminology at Stockholm University.
– They didn’t work. We do not have research that shows that it is successful to fight crime with prison, especially when it comes to young people. There, the recurrence rate is very high.
Tham also believes that we will not get to the underlying problem through tougher measures.
– Basically, it is the same young people in the past as now who commit crimes. These are boys who come from poor families where there is violence and overcrowding and the solution does not lie in harsher punishments.
Previous criminal positive
A 26-year-old former gang criminal who SVT Nyheter has been in contact with is positive about the proposal. He himself sat in several Sis homes as a child.
– When I first came to Sis, it was because I was messy and abused. There I ended up in the same department as people who had murdered and committed gold robberies. It’s absolutely insane that you mix young people like that.
Furthermore, he says that he made contacts at the Sis home that drew him deeper into crime.
– I also think that it is a deterrent if you were to end up in prison instead, especially if it was a long sentence. Then it won’t be worth it, he says.
Jacob Fraiman, union chairman of Unga Kris Sweden (Kriminella’s revenge in society) does not agree that it is a deterrent. Rather, he believes that prison can be more attractive when you have a criminal identity. Despite that, he is cautiously positive about the proposal.
Hear Jacob Fraiman’s thoughts in the clip above.