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Finland Sentencing and Punishment
Prison sentences for criminal offenses were of three
kinds:
fully fixed terms of fourteen days to three months; fixed
terms
of three months to twelve years, with the possibility of
release
on parole for the equivalent of the remainder of the
original
sentence; and life terms, which had no minimum time but
which
allowed release only upon pardon by the president. Courts
could
also render a conditional sentence, specifying a term of
imprisonment, but establishing a probation period for the
same
duration. If no new offense was committed, the execution
of the
sentence would be considered complete.
Since the early part of the nineteenth century, capital
punishment has been virtually abolished in practice. After
Finland's independence in 1918, capital punishment was
only
enforced in wartime, although it was not until 1949 that
it was
formally proscribed in peacetime. In 1972 executions were
abolished. In practice, life imprisonment was reserved for
the
crime of murder. As of the end of 1984, only twenty-seven
prisoners were serving life terms. Those under life
sentence were
generally pardoned after ten or fifteen years. The average
number
of convictions for murder had been steadily diminishing,
from
forty-six annually in the early 1920s to eleven in the
late
1970s.
Fines were the most common form of punishment,
constituting
90 percent of all sentences when minor traffic offenses
were
included. In addition to traffic offenses, fines were
commonly
applied in cases of petty theft and petty assault. The
actual
amount of a fine depended on the income and wealth of an
individual. Thus, a fine for speeding, normally about
US$70,
could be assessed at US$20 for an indigent and at well
over
US$1,000 for a single person with a high salary.
Of 299,000 persons sentenced in 1986, less than 9
percent
(26,000) were given prison terms, of whom fewer than half
(11,300) received unconditional sentences. The remainder
were
sentenced to a fine together with a conditional prison
term. A
considerable proportion of the latter category were
persons
convicted of aggravated drunken driving. The median length
of
unconditional prison sentences was 4.1 months in 1985.
Typical
sentences were, for theft, 3.4 months; for forgery, 8.0
months;
for robbery, 9.5 months; for aggravated assault, 8.7
months.
About 95 percent of sentences were for under 2 years.
The daily average prison population was marked by a
downward
trend, from 5,600 in 1976 to about 4,200 in 1986. But the
prisoner rate of 86 per 100,000 of population in 1986 was
still
much higher than rates in other Nordic countries and in
Western
Europe in general. Since the crime rate in Finland was
rather low
in comparison with the other Nordic countries, it appeared
that
the higher rate of incarceration was the result of a high
rate of
solved crime, a greater use of unconditional sentencing,
and
longer prison terms.
There were two types of prisons--closed prisons and
open
institutions. The latter were classified as either
permanently
located open prisons or as labor colonies established for
a
limited period of time for the performance of certain
work.
Sentences for the nonpayment of fines as well as sentences
of up
to two years were served in open institutions, if the
prisoner
was physically able to perform the work and if the danger
of
escaping was minimal.
The criminal justice system applied only to offenders
over
the age of fifteen. Those under that age were placed under
the
custody of child welfare authorities. Juveniles between
fifteen
and eighteen years of age were customarily accorded a
reduced
sentence, and offenders between fifteen and twenty-one
were more
likely than adults to receive conditional sentences. Those
in
this age group who were sentenced to an unconditional term
of six
months to four years might be sent to a special juvenile
prison.
Such institutions were meant to have a training and
education
function, but in practice they did not differ greatly from
ordinary prisons.
Data as of December 1988
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