[3] Thomas Bodström is also active as the chairman of the children's rights organization ECPAT Sweden.

However, when Prime Minister Göran Persson announced his new cabinet appointment on 11 October 2000, Bodström was a completely unknown face to most of the political journalists attending the press conference.

Although Bodström was unaccustomed to national politics at the time, he has managed to keep his job, despite calls for his resignation, especially loudly voiced after several high-profile prison breaks during the summer of 2004.

At the time of his appointment, Bodström revealed in an interview that he had used hashish in his youth, and also, that he on several occasions had employed a person in his home without paying the appropriate taxes.

Bodström at first agreed, but when the nurse explained that he would be tested for amphetamines, hashish, opiates, and benzodiazepines, he changed his mind, and said, "I don't feel like doing it now.