C APPENDIX DECISION Date 2020-02-05 Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman Elisabeth Rynning Page Dnr 1 (21) O 7-2018 Very serious criticism directed at the Prison and Probation Service for the isolation of inmates The Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman’s statement in brief: For many years, Sweden has received international criticism for the conditions in which inmates are held in Swedish remand prisons. The criticism is, primarily, that inmates with restrictions become isolated and, as such, risk suffering from mental and physical ill health. Since 2017, the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman has investigated the issue of isolation of inmates held in remand prisons. In this decision, the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman states that isolation risks affecting not only inmates with restrictions, but also inmates held in remand prisons who have a legal right to associate with other inmates during the day. Based on the Prison and Probation Service's own surveys for 2018, 83 per cent of those held on remand with restrictions and 33 per cent of those detained who had the right to associate were held in conditions amounting to solitary confinement. In this decision, the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman states • that the Prison and Probation Service's remand prisons lack sufficient facilities for the purposes of association as well as sufficient staff to be able to satisfy inmates' statutory rights of association with other inmates, and that the agency deserves very serious criticism for its continued shortcomings in this regard • that she is very critical of the fact that the Prison and Probation Service has not progressed further in its work with the use of isolation-breaking measures • that it is very important the Prison and Probation Service introduces a support system to enable continuous following up of the work with breaking the isolation of inmates. In the decision, the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman also raises the question of the need for a review of, inter alia, the Remand Prisons Act (2010:611) in order to clarify inmates' rights and counteract isolation and its negative effects. Riksdagens ombudsmän Box 16327 SE–103 26 Stockholm, SWEDEN Visit: Västra Trädgårdsgatan 4 A E-mail: Phone: Fax: justitieombudsmannen@jo.se +46 8 786 40 00 +46 8-21 65 58 – 82 – www.jo.se