ten years ago, Peter was Wallenskog one of over 9.000 lekmannaövervakare in Sweden. His mission is on a voluntary basis to support and monitor clients sentenced to probation or conditional release after serving his prison sentence. It takes place in parallel with the frivårdens other actions.

today, however, there are only just over 1,000 lekmannaövervakare left – despite the fact that the prison service emphasises that it will not succeed in reducing återfallen in the crime, unless there is a commitment from the civil society.

” It is beyond belief that you nedprioriterat such an important and cost-effective bet. We play a big role when the clients are going to break with their criminal lifestyle and take themselves back to the community, ” says Peter Wallenskog, the former in the armed forces and the self-employed.

During his ten years as lekmannaövervakare he has met and supported around 25 clients. Compensation equivalent to what he calls ”kaffepengar”.

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together with Thomas, 47 (fingerat the name). After having been sentenced for a wide range of different crimes and participated in several different programs within the method during probation appointed Peter Wallenskog to Thomas lekmannaövervakare.

They were seen every other week for the first eight months of the year. In between they had some contact on the phone.

” It changed everything. He was an ordinary man that I could not get away. He made me realize what I was doing and where I was likely to end up. Without him I would have been dead or sitting inside in the day, I am sure, ” says Thomas.

with Peter Wallenskog as a genuine awakening. He just hung out with criminals, would suddenly relate to a common man who obviously was interested in him and who saw him as a victim.

It has been good for Thomas. Today he runs a small construction company. He has been ”clean” from criminality in almost four years. He rents a small villa in a municipality south of Stockholm, and he loves his ”svenneliv”, as he puts it.

Image 1 of 2 – It is beyond belief that you nedprioriterat such an important and cost-effective bet. We play a big role when the clients are going to break with their criminal lifestyle and take themselves back to the community, ” says Peter Wallenskog, lekmannaövervakare. Photo: Alexander Mahmoud Slide 2 of 2 Peter Wallenskog. Photo: Alexander Mahmoud Slideshow

” Everything is thanks to Peter. He showed me that there is a life outside the criminal context. I would be ashamed eyes out of me if I did disappoint him, ” says Thomas.

members of the society participating in the execution of the imposed penalties as role models is important – both the prison service and the national Crime prevention council stated several times. The question was also of the Swedish national association for voluntary samhällsarbetare, RFS, at a seminar during the Almedalen week in the summer.

the method during probation, which is the part of the Correctional facility, which appoints the lekmannaövervakare, however, has undergone significant changes in recent years. The goal is to create a more uniform and rättsäker probation:

” We have had a focus on the professionalising surveillance content. Had we had the capacity to run both components in parallel, we had made it. To the number of lekmannaövervakare would decrease was expected, but not desirable in this extent, admits Lennart Palmgren, frivårdsdirektör on Probation.

to work with återfallsförebyggande interventions that have scientific evidence. Frivårdsinspektörerna trained now in talks techniques based on cognitive behavioural therapy and the assessment is that it is more important to an educated frivårdsinspektör stands for the formal supervision, than to spend resources on to support and educate lekmannaövervakarna

Gunilla Sundblad, secretary of the RFS, which organizes lekmannaövervakarna, is seriously concerned about. She believes that the Correctional bet on evidence-based programs rather increased than decreased, the need for lekmannaövervakare:

” They account for the human contribution, as well as for a clear link to the established society. Without people-to-people efforts is the reintegration is doomed to fail, ” she says.

people who want to engage, according to Gunilla Sundblad. But it requires that the method during probation focus and lift the volunteer’s efforts.

According to the frivårdsdirektör Lennart Palmgren has the ambition to once again raise the lekmannaövervakarnas function:

” We know that we will not succeed fully if we do not have civil society with us. Lekmannaövervakarnas role may even become more important when more clients need to be moved to environments where they do not have their own social network, ” he says.

for how to do it, however, are not. On the contrary, the claim Gunilla Sundblad to several frivårdskontor now understanding is that lekmannaövervakarna actively could be de-prioritised. In the Correctional budget documentation for the 2020 notes, furthermore, that the budgetary situation is so strained that it is possible to ”lower the ambition of the frivårdens work” and that it ”cannot be implemented without also the quality of the återfallförebyggande work is affected very negatively”.

– In a time when everyone, from ministers to commissioners, talking about how important it is that civil society is engaged, it feels like it is time to move from words to action. We cost a drop in the ocean and means so much to many, ” says Peter Wallenskog.