the prison and Probation service in Sweden have been growing pains. In several years reduced the number of inmates in the jails and institutions in Sweden, but in 2016 turned the figure suddenly upwards. And, in 2018, they measured the greatest increase in the number of inmates to the institution over 10 years. This according to a new report from the Probation service.
the Average number of detainees in 2018 increased by 13 per cent compared with the previous year. Among other things, as a result of straffskärpningar for coarse vapenbrott which came into force last year.
– Then, there are more factors, the police have their effectiveness. It is quite clear that if it is arrested more people suspected of crimes so that means that the courts detaining more, ” says director-general Nils Öberg.
is that it also is fully out of the institutions.
– It affects our ability to move detainees who have had their judgments.
A pre-trial detention shall normally only be filled to ninety per cent of the business to function normally.
– We need to have a margin of at least ten per cent. For example, if a person does not work in a place we need to be able to move it. Right now we have jails that are filled to 115-120%. It is very, very serious, ” says Nils Öberg.
of the 32 jails overcrowded in Sweden.
” They are up there on a really critical level. Last week we had 22 overcrowded detention centers. So one can say that the rate of increase right now is a overcrowded jail in a week, ” says Nils Öberg.
the Director-general is now warning that security at the detention facilities can be negatively impacted if the situation worsens further.
I am concerned for all of the most is that if the flows continue to be like this huge, increases the risk that the committed mistakes. And error in our business can have very serious consequences, ” says the director and adds that he does not think that the Correctional system today, a qualitatively inferior work, despite the hard load.
– However, the risk is that the people who do the job are tired and worn and have too much to do so that you simply will make mistakes.
that the situation is manageable, day-to-day but that the Correctional system needs to look for more solutions. An example is to investigate the possibility for convicts to serve their sentences with electronic monitoring in the home.
In the Correctional report describes several reforms, of which the decision has already been taken, which might aggravate the situation in the detention facilities further. For example, proposals on the possibility of postponing conditional release and remove the lower punishments for younger offenders. The prison service want to that the government is now considering to postpone the reforms until the situation in the detention facilities are under the control.
” We just can’t think dubbelbeläggning and capacity increase. We end up in a situation where the Correctional system is no longer able to receive people who the courts have arrested, so we are in an extremely serious situation. It means that we need to have more options. We need to have a little more flexibility to continuously be able to make decisions that allow beläggningstrycket decreases.
Nils Öberg says that the prison service has a good dialogue with the government offices.
“We have a close dialogue and there is no responsible level do not have clear how serious the situation is,” he says.
the Police alert about the lack of space in detention centers
