REMAND If a court decides to permit a request for remand, the court must – if a prosecution has not yet been brought – decide a timeframe within which prosecution is to be brought before a court. The timeframe may not be set beyond that which is absolutely necessary. If the period of time to bring a prosecution to court is insufficient, a court may issue an extension upon a prosecutor’s request. If a prosecution is not then brought within two weeks, a court must hold a new remand hearing at intervals of no more than two weeks (chap. 24, § 18 RB). If a suspect who is held on remand is then sentenced for the crime, the court must consider whether he or she is to remain in remand until the judgement comes into effect (chap. 24 § 21, first paragraph RB). 2.2 The Prison and Probation Service’s remand prison operation As a main rule, a person subject to remand must be transferred to a remand prison without delay (chap. 24, § 22, first paragraph RB). The Prison and Probation Service is responsible for operating remand prisons (§ 1 of the Regulation [2007:1172] instructions for the Prison and Probation Service). As of December 2019, Sweden had 32 remand prisons with a total of 2,276 places available. The three largest remand prisons – in terms of number of places – are Göteborg Remand Prison (344 places), Kronoberg Remand Prison (280 places) and Sollentuna Remand Prison (244 places). The three smallest remand prisons are Östersund Remand Prison (9 places), Visby Remand Prison (19 places) and Karlskrona Remand Prison (23 places).1 1 Information retrieved from the Prison and Probation Service’s website on 18 December 2019. 2 The Prison and Probation Service’s remand prisons can be divided into three broad categories, namely 1. remand prisons which only admit inmates with restrictions (for example the remand prisons in Falun and Gävle), 2. remand prisons which admit inmates with or without restrictions (for example the remand prisons in Luleå and Växjö), and 3. remand prisons which only admit inmates without restrictions (for example the remand prisons in Salberga and Ystad). Five of the remand prisons are high-security remand prisons (Gothenburg, Huddinge, Kronoberg, Malmö and Sollentuna). Some of the high-security remand prisons admit both inmates with and without restrictions. The remand prisons which only admit inmates without restrictions (referred to as association remand prisons) are located in buildings previously used as prisons or are co-located with an existing prison. The association remand prisons in Sweden are Bomhus, Helsingborg (Berga Remand Prison Branch), Salberga, Storboda and Ystad remand prisons with a total of 214 places. The design of these remand prisons enables inmates to freely associate with one another during the daytime. The remand prisons which admit inmates with and without restrictions have association departments where inmates can freely associate with one another during the daytime. The Prison and Probation Service also has association places that are not located within an association department. These places can be used for placement of both inmates with or without restrictions. Inmates who are placed in an association place must be provided with the – 17 –