Swedish prison service declares 'crisis' amid cell shortage
The Swedish Prison and Probation Service has declared a "stabsläge'' or "crisis mode", launching a national incident management team to deal with the pressing lack of cells in Swedish prisons.
There have been a lack of cells in Swedish prisons for some time, but the situation has become worse over the past year. A lack of space in pre-trial detention facilities means that people awaiting trial are often held in temporary holding cells for longer than usual.
According to the prison service's own forecast, the authority's lack of prison spaces is only going to get worse, meaning that it will become more difficult to find spots both for people awaiting trial and for those who have already received their sentence.
In addition to the decision to enter a "state of preparedness", the prison service's director-general Martin Holmgren has also announced the establishment of a national incident management team, with a current end date of May 31st.
"An incident management team will help us to further focus on handling the very difficult situation of a lack of cells which we're experiencing at the moment," Susanne Wedin, director of the department of detention, prison and probation services, said in a comment. "The standard linear work to create places will continue, as before, with unchanged resources."
The prison service is planning to expand the number of holding cells and cells in pre-trial detention in order to handle the increased number of inmates expected as a result of the reforms detailed in the Tidö agreement. According to its own report from December last year, it aims to increase the number of prison spaces from 9,000 to 27,000 within the next three years.
A number of new prison places which were expected to be available this year and next year may be seriously delayed, according to the agency, which means that the situation has worsened further.
"We need a close dialogue with the owners of our properties to see what we can do together to establish processes which are as effective and tailored as possible. We need to meet the targets we've been set for placing people awaiting trial and those who have been sentenced, and to do that we need more spaces," Wedin said.
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There have been a lack of cells in Swedish prisons for some time, but the situation has become worse over the past year. A lack of space in pre-trial detention facilities means that people awaiting trial are often held in temporary holding cells for longer than usual.
According to the prison service's own forecast, the authority's lack of prison spaces is only going to get worse, meaning that it will become more difficult to find spots both for people awaiting trial and for those who have already received their sentence.
In addition to the decision to enter a "state of preparedness", the prison service's director-general Martin Holmgren has also announced the establishment of a national incident management team, with a current end date of May 31st.
"An incident management team will help us to further focus on handling the very difficult situation of a lack of cells which we're experiencing at the moment," Susanne Wedin, director of the department of detention, prison and probation services, said in a comment. "The standard linear work to create places will continue, as before, with unchanged resources."
The prison service is planning to expand the number of holding cells and cells in pre-trial detention in order to handle the increased number of inmates expected as a result of the reforms detailed in the Tidö agreement. According to its own report from December last year, it aims to increase the number of prison spaces from 9,000 to 27,000 within the next three years.
A number of new prison places which were expected to be available this year and next year may be seriously delayed, according to the agency, which means that the situation has worsened further.
"We need a close dialogue with the owners of our properties to see what we can do together to establish processes which are as effective and tailored as possible. We need to meet the targets we've been set for placing people awaiting trial and those who have been sentenced, and to do that we need more spaces," Wedin said.
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