The Correctional Service’s goal is for 85 percent of the inmates in Sweden’s 46 institutions to be employed.
In the year 2022, there were 13,000 prisoners who devoted a total of 6.3 million hours to employment, and many times it involves the production of various types of objects, GP reports.
On the site krimprod.se are some of the products inmates made, including dog leashes, bags, hunting towers, beds, garden groups and bathroom shelves. One of the best-selling products is wooden boxes.
– I think we make upwards of 300,000 wooden boxes a year, says Arve Hopenexpert on work operations within the Correctional Service, to the newspaper.
Even hand-cast candles, made at the Hall institution, have become a big seller. At the same institution, suicide-proof cutlery is manufactured, which is delivered to HVB and Sis homes.
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At Hall, they manufacture, among other things, hand-cast candles. Photo: Caisa Rasmussen/TT
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Inmates make houses
But even bigger products than that are manufactured behind prison walls. At Tillberga, the inmates engage in house manufacturing and last year they produced approximately 125 houses.
– We have a turnover of just over SEK 200 million per year, says Arve Hopen about the institutions’ employment activities.
In addition to houses, inmates at some institutions also have the opportunity to engage in food production in the form of, for example, meat and milk.
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According to Arve Hopen, employment is an important part of the inmates’ everyday life and a way to practice receiving instructions from a supervisor.
– An institution for me is like a community of its own. You have a home, you have your school place, you have your workplace and you have your leisure time. The staff are not here to whip them, we are here to dress them in as many good things as possible and give them the best care possible, he tells GP.
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