Swedish prisoner escapes to visit dentist
thelocal.se
thelocal.se
Summary: He was serving a 1-month sentence at an open prison. When he left the building, the electronic monitoring system was triggered. After returning, he was given a warning, an additional day was added to his sentence, and he was moved to a closed prison.
Why do I feel like the US prison system would have given the guy a much more severe punishment... :(
I assume people with longer sentences will get health care.
(People with long sentences also spend the last time before they leave prison in those institutions, to get used to not be locked in.)
A one-day extension isn't exactly serious, either. I believe it could have been much worse.
(Disclaimer: A bit old information, but probably still correct.)
I think a day or two extra is typical punishment for minor problems (not cleaning your room, etc). It said in the linked DN article that he was kept locked up the rest of the month (not moved to a separate institution).
They are quite tolerant there, as I said that place is also used as last stop to get people used to not being inside walls after years in prison.
Either the prison administrator was incompetent, probably not uncommon, or the guy had a low pain threshold.
(same Disclaimer as in the GP.)