Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - First part - III. Constitution and Administration - 2. State Administration - The Administration of Justice, by Hj. Hammarskjöld, L. L. D., President of the Göta Court of Appeal, Jönköping - The Prison System, by K. Blomquist, Prison Gov., Kristianstad
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THE PRISON SYSTEM.
233
the total number of civil cases raised, some 40 % are decided by compromise or
are allowed to lapse.
Out of every thousand of the civil actions brought before the lower
tribunals, 110 (on an average for the five years 1891/95) were carried forward to
the Courts of appeal, while in 21 cases proceedings were continued to the High
Court of Justice, whereas in one thousand criminal cases only 32 were carried
forward to the Court of appeal and not more than 9 to the High Court. A
fluctuation in the proportion of appeal cases may be seen during the period
1860/75; the number was on the increase, only to diminish again subsequently.
In regard to the decisions of the lower courts appealed against during the
period 1891/95, 63’4 % of the judgments in the civil, and 76-3 % of those in
the criminal cases were confirmed by the Courts of appeal. The High Court,
again, confirmed 81 "1 % of the judgments in civil, and 86’9 % of those in
criminal cases where an appeal was made to it from the decision of the Court of
appeal. Following out the results of the cases of appeal from the lower courts
on to the High Court, we find, for the years 1887/91, that 57"5 % of the
decisions in the district-courts, and 64’7 % of the decisions of the town-courts were
confirmed by the Supreme Court. With respect to all the figures above given,
it may not be out of place to call the reader’s attention to the fact that the
reversal in the decisions is often only a partial one, and that it is not
infrequently solely due to the fresh evidence which is adduced at the re-trial. It is
not the rule, especially in the lower courts, for expert counsel to appear. That
circumstance is often responsible for the investigation of a case being far from
complete, whereby is necessitated a further evidence in a superior court.
The Prison System.
The Swedish prison system is unquestionably of a high order. In its
present form it is the result of half a century’s persistent and thorough
work of reformation.
The initiative to these reforms was taken by the Crown Prince, afterwards
King Oscar I, by his well-known work: On Punishments and Prisons, published
in 1840. In this work he advocates the Philadelphian system (the cell system)
as the best basis for the treatment of prisoners in general. The old or
Auburn-system ought to be retained only for hopeless cases of relapse and for prisoners
»sentenced to a longer term of imprisonment than experience has shown can be
spent in separation without injury to the prisoner». This system should, however,
be given up »in the same degree that experience shows a more extended
application of the separate system to be beneficent». The work of building prisons
according to the cell system was immediately undertaken, and most of the »läns»
of the kingdom had prisons of this kind when the penal law of 1857 was
promulgated. Through this law the cell system was made obligatory for all sentenced
to penal servitude for a term of two years or less.
The experience gained since then has brought a conviction that
the cell system might advantageously be extended, and through the
law of July 29, 1892 the maximum time of confinement is
extended to three years. The law provides that each prisoner sentenced
to penal servitude for four years or less shall during the time of
punishment be kept in cellular confinement, when one fourth of the time
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