Nordic countries incarcerate offenders at much lower rates in comparison with incarceration rates in the United States, and reincarcerate fewer people per capita. Non-custodial alternatives to sanctions, including fines and community service, are used extensively in Finland to reduce negative effects of institutionalization and subsequent disadvantage caused by incarceration. The nature of drug-involved offenders within the Finnish system is reviewed in light of current research about the effectiveness of incarceration and deterrence-based approaches for drug offenders. Employing a 2014 sample from register data (consisting of official government records) of drug offenders in Finland with a 3-year recidivism period, this study utilizes a genetic matching procedure to compare offenders who received fines, conditional sentences (probation), or incarceration. While recognizing that numerous confounding variables affect incarceration, we compare a matched sample of drug offenders and the sanctions they have received from the Finland judicial system to determine whether offenders who initially receive a fine or a conditional sentence reenter the correctional system at different rates than those who are incarcerated. After matching, results found no significant differences between offenders receiving incarceration sentences or those who received noncustodial sentences (fine, or conditional sentence) for general and drug-related recidivism. These results are presented within the context of the Finnish corrections system in order to inform the criminal justice community about culture, incarceration, and process differences that could positively affect working with drug offenders in other localities.

与美国的监禁率相比，北欧国家的监禁率要低得多，而且人均被监禁的人数也更少。芬兰广泛采用制裁以外的非拘禁措施，包括罚款和社区服务，以减少制度化的不利影响以及因监禁而造成的不利后果。根据目前有关监禁和威慑方法对毒品犯罪者的有效性的研究，对芬兰系统内涉及毒品犯罪者的性质进行了审查。该研究采用了2014年样本，该样本来自芬兰有3年累犯期的犯罪者的注册数据（由官方政府记录组成），该研究利用遗传匹配程序比较了受到罚款，有条件的判决（缓刑），或监禁。在认识到许多混杂因素会影响监禁的同时，我们比较了匹配的毒品犯罪者样本和他们从芬兰司法系统收到的制裁，以确定最初受到罚款或有条件判决的犯罪者是否以与犯罪者不同的比率重新进入惩教系统。被监禁的人。匹配之后，结果发现，对普通和与毒品有关的累犯，被判处有期徒刑的罪犯或接受非监禁刑罚（罚款或有条件的刑罚）的罪犯之间没有显着差异。这些结果是在芬兰惩戒系统的背景下介绍的，目的是向刑事司法界提供有关文化，监禁，