Annika Östberg Returns to Sweden - UPDATED

Annika Östberg is a Swedish-American woman who has been in a Californian prison since 1981 serving a sentence for accessory to murder, including that of a policeman. She has now been transferred to Hinseberg Woman's Prison in Örebro to serve the remainder of her sentence in Sweden. The transfer was kept secret until a couple of days ago when it emerged that she was in transit in New York. The case has been very politically sensitive in the USA because Östberg has admitted that she was accessory to the murder of a policeman, a crime which could have led to a death sentence if she had not signed an agreement with the prosecutor admitting guilt to murder. (The victims' families have also been very involved in the process, in line with the US system.) Östberg had been sentenced to between 25 years and lifetime and had appealed four times to have her sentence time-limited, without success. Swedish government officials have tried to negotiate for a transfer for a long time but have not been successful until now.

According to media reporting it's not clear exactly what the agreement between the Swedish government and California is but one would suspect that the Americans have not agreed to this without imposing conditions. That said, I think Östberg will not be wasting too much time at Hinseberg. Literally. My guess is a year or so. As soon as she is allowed to appeal for a time-limited sentence, she will, and in all likelihood she will also be granted a limit and/or a pardon.

Most Swedes would argue that she has already served enough time. 27, soon 28, years in prison is a loooong time. The Swedish justice system sees criminals rather as victims who can - not in all but most cases - regret their actions and be helped to a new and better life. Sure, there are persons who in plain terms are pure evil - such as the Fritzls out there - but most perpetators have fallen into crime due to drugs, wrong circles of "friends", etc. resulting in a vicious circle of bad decisions and actions. Östberg can never do what she did undone - and she has clearly committed, or helped to commit a horrible crime - but there are circumstances such as heroin abuse and a life situation associated with that, that in a Swedish context would have let her complete her sentence years ago. Especially since she does not seem the type who would re-offend.

Putting away people indefinitely does not bring loved ones back or stop crime. The US, with at least ten times as many prisoners per capita as Sweden, is not a safer society. The solution to society's ills is not that simple. We wish it were, but it's not.

I could write more about this, for example tell you about the American prison priest who visited the Swedish prison Hall while I was part of a church group which met regularly with the inmates. Looking out over the facility, he asked "so how many prisoners do you hold here? 2,000, 3,000?". The Swedish priest looked a bit shocked and replied "200".

But enough said today.

In terms of the person who is Annika Östberg it will be quite interesting to hear what she thinks of Sweden in 2009. She is now 55 years old and has not been back in Sweden since she was 13. She is bound to have a very romantic view of Sweden. Returning to Sweden has been her dream and struggle since 1981 presumably and that dream and that struggle cannot be separated. They are two sides of the same coin. Hopefully she will not be disappointed either side.

Update
According to Swedish Justice Minister Beatrice Ask, the USA has not set any terms for Annika Östberg's transfer and she will be treated like any other Swedish prisoner sentenced to life. This means that she can appeal to the Örebro District Court to have her life sentence commuted to a set number of years. The handling period for an appeal is four to six months. During that time the Swedish Prison and Probabation Service will help Östberg plan for life out of prison. Common procedure is to re-introduce prisoners to society in phases, via so-called halfway houses. After having spent a long time in prison, they are used to a very institutionalised, planned life where people are always telling them what to do. Suddenly being responsible to take all decisions on their own can be difficult and harmful without support. Many are also depressed over having taken the wrong decisions and missed so much of their lives and need help with dealing with that grief.

Östberg's wish is to work with dogs (which she has been doing in California) at the work co-operative Basta, which specialises in activities and work training for ex-offenders and former drug addicts. In the beginning she may have a probabation officer either from the Prison and Probabation Service or a voluntary sector organisations (such as Kris). They make sure she has somewhere to live and something to do. Some prisoners are offered a kind of foster family to manage the transition to a life in freedom and in society. Contact with family and other relatives are also important. Östberg only has her mother, after her son died in a car accident when he was 15.