C APPENDIX Dnr O 7-2018 Page 15 (21) group did not receive isolation-breaking measures involving human contact for at least two hours per day. This large number of inmates can, therefore, be regarded as being held in conditions amounting to solitary confinement and at risk of suffering from both mental and physical ill-health. As mentioned, it cannot be ruled out that this category also includes inmates who have a legal right of association with others, that is inmates who are placed in segregation with no basis in law. If this is the case, there is a risk that they will be isolated. I have not received clarification as to which category these inmates belong when the Prison and Probation Service measures the use of isolation-breaking measures. I would like to reiterate that this group of inmates has the right to associate with others and should, therefore, be included in the category inmates without restrictions. The current uncertainty regarding the reporting of measurement results means that it is currently not possible to clarify the extent to which the agency is able to satisfy inmates’ right of association with other inmates. For several decades, Sweden has received international criticism for, inter alia, holding inmates in the remand prison system in isolation. Therefore, this is not an issue which has suddenly arisen from nowhere. The issue was also raised by the National Council for Crime Prevention in a report in 2017. In this report, the National Council for Crime Prevention states, inter alia, that the Prison and Probation Service's surveys from 2015 showed that almost nine out of ten inmates with restrictions were isolated on any given day.35 The shortcomings have also been highlighted by the Parliamentary Ombudsmen on several occasions. Against this background, it is very serious that the Prison and Probation Service has not progressed further in its work in achieving its own objectives for isolation-breaking measures. This entails a risk of serious consequences for those who are in the Prison and Probation Service's remand prisons. The Prison and Probation Service's opportunities to work with isolationbreaking measures are affected by how many, and for how long, inmates are subject to restrictions. As previously mentioned, the Remand Prison and Restriction Government Inquiry raised this issue in its report and expressed, inter alia, the opinion that there is a culture of fairly widespread acceptance that inmates are subject to restrictions for a long time: Our opinion is that a radical change is needed to the perspective within the remand prison system and the culture that surrounds this issue. This culture is characterised by a certain naivety in its view of the state and its representatives as well-meaning in all aspects and that there was, therefore, no need for clear 35 See National Council for Crime Prevention's report 2017:6 Reducing segregation in prisons – Situation and proposals, pp. 11 and 12. – 96 –