Servin' hard times - Tough on Crime music video inspired by Joe Arpaio

This video was made in the hopes of inspiring people to adopt a tough-on-crime stance. My home country of Sweden is awful in this regard with its by far highest cost per inmate kept in the penal system, and with little result to show for it. Swedish prisons are luxurious and very comfortable to live in, they certainly don't do their job of deterring people from committing crimes. Watching documentaries on Joe Arpaio and his Tent City inspired me and showed me that there's a better way of dealing with crime than the pampering of criminals that Sweden excels at.

In 2010, the average cost per inmate kept in Swedish prison was 1,001,560 crowns per year, or about $165,000 with the current exchange rate. Source: http://www.kvv.se/sv/Statistik/Kostnader-lon-och-sysselsattning/
For comparison, average costs in the USA were $24,052 per inmate in 2008, and as low as $8,128 in Alabama. Source: http://nicic.gov/StateStats/Default.aspx?State=AL

Recidivism rates in the two countries are virtually the same, especially when lining up the same crime categories.
In Sweden, 39% of people convicted of crimes in 2004 had been convicted again within three years. Source: http://www.bra.se/extra/measurepoint/?module_instance=4&name=aterfall_200...
In the USA, 43.3% of people released from prison in 2004 had been reincarcerated again within three years. Source: http://community.nicic.gov/blogs/corrections_headlines/archive/2011/04/18/pew...
A study by the Grant Sawyer Center for Justice Studies found that the recidivism rate for Arizona (home of Joe Arpaio and his Tent City, both of which were featured in the video) was 24.5%. Source: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/aug/20/study-suggests-nevada-prisons-do-...

The Swedish crime rate has been exploding for decades, averaging a 5% yearly increase in violent crime. Last year saw a new peak in the number of homicides with 333 reported cases, an increase by 44%. Source: www.bra.se.

For further information, see these videos of mine (though the situation is even worse in Sweden today than when they were made some two years ago):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSAtByo6KGg - Sweden's correctional system
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD833nztAdw - Sweden's crime rate

Footage included under Fair Use:

National Geographic Channel: Lockdown - Tent City, Arizona
National Geographic Channel: Aryan Brotherhood
America's Toughest Prisons, season 1, episode 1, 5 and 6
Inside Alaska's toughest prison part 3
20th Century Fox Television: Prison Break, season 1
HBO: Oz, seasons 1 and 2

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Crime
• prisons
• tough on crime
• Joe Arpaio
• Big Boss Man
• Daniel Hammarberg
• recidivism
• Sweden
• USA
• incarceration
• Tent City
• Maricopa County Jail
• Music video
• prison guards