1 SUMMARY isolated. Given the risks even short-term isolation can entail for inmates, this is very serious. Even more remarkable is that the Prison and Probation Service’s surveys show that 33 per cent of inmates who were held on remand without any restrictions imposed by a prosecutor, nor had any decision on segregation, were held in isolation, in conditions amounting to solitary confinement. These are inmates who have the right to associate with one another, and the Prison and Probation Service has no legal right to deny inmates such an opportunity. In my decision in February 2020, I demand a number of measures that, in my opinion, are necessary to rectify the unsustainable situation that currently prevails in Swedish remand prisons. Some of these measures have already been proposed in the Report from the Remand Prison and Restrictions Government Inquiry in August 2016. These proposals include that the Prison and Probation Service’s remand prisons must be provided with premises that are designed to be able to satisfy the needs for both the inmates’ rights of association with one another and isolation-breaking measures, and that legislation needs to be supplemented with provisions which ensure inmates in remand prisons the right to isolation-breaking measures. Additionally, I highlight the need for the legislation to be supplemented with provisions that both define the concept of association, and state the extent to which an inmate should have the right to associate with other inmates. In my opinion, this is a necessary measure to depart from the arbitrariness that characterises the application of the provisions today. Finally, I am of the opinion that the Prison and Probation Service must introduce a support system that enables the agency to work systematically with, inter alia, isolation-breaking measures. My hope is that this report can contribute to changing the situation in Swedish remand prisons for the better. Elisabeth Rynning Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman –4–