B APPENDIX Dnr O 7-2018 Page 6 (15) According to the representatives of the Prison and Probation Service, the term association place began to be used in 2005 when isolation-breaking measures became an objective set by the agency for remand prison operations. However, there has been no change to the actual places themselves. An inmate who is placed in an association department shall spend time in association with other inmates throughout the day, i.e. from the time the cell is unlocked every morning until being locked again every evening. For an inmate who is placed in an association department, his or her time in the remand prison therefore greatly resembles being held in a regular prison. Association places, which are not located in association departments, are places that can also be used as restriction places. Inmates who are placed there must be able to associate with other inmates in groups during certain parts of the day, but they are locked in their cells for parts of the day. There is no definition of when a period in association is considered as fulfilled. There is also no fixed time period for how long during a day a lock-in in period in a cell can last, which is the case in a prison.4 The premise, however, is that inmates in an association place should spend a large part of the day together with others. It is difficult to set a minimum amount of time for association because the agency is so far from reaching the objective that an inmate with restrictions should not be isolated, i.e. receive two hours or more per day of association involving human contact. Regarding this, the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman stated that the difference between associating and co-sitting does not then appear to be particularly clear. Being in an association place rather resembles an isolation-breaking measure. The representatives of the Prison and Probation Service confirmed that to be placed in association is not intended to be like that. The representatives of the Prison and Probation Service stated that the agency does not record nor report the number of inmates who are placed in association. The Prison and Probation Service's national statistics on the use of isolationbreaking measures include the group of inmates in association places which are not located within an association department, in the statistics for inmates in restriction places. As a result, the measures where inmates are taken out in groups for association are reported as an isolation-breaking measure for each inmate. In this way, the statistics on measures taken for the category inmates with restrictions are improved. Another consequence is that measures are reported for many more inmates than for those who belong to the category inmates with restrictions. As such, the reported number of inmates who belong to this category will also be more than the actual number. See the Prison and Probation Service's regulations and general advice on institutions, chap. 6 §§ 1 and 2 (KVFS 2011:1). 4 – 72 –