HOW DOES THE PRISON AND PROBATION SERVICE WORK WITH ISOLATION-BREAKING MEASURES? 7 7 How does the Prison and Probation Service work with isolation-breaking measures? In its most recent annual reports, the Prison and Probation Service has reported on their work to reduce the isolation of inmates in remand prison. In the opinion of the Prison and Probation Service, it is important to reduce the amount of time inmates spend in isolation and to counteract the harmful effects of isolation. This applies not least to inmates who have been held on remand for a long time. According to statistics from the Prison and Probation Service, 9,700 remand orders were completed in 2018. The remand prison times are shown in Table 1. Table 1. Remand periods Remand periods 47 per cent (4,559 inmates) had a remand period of less than one month 20 per cent (1,940 inmates) had a remand period of one to two months 10 per cent (970 inmates) had a remand period of two to three months 8 per cent (776 inmates) had a remand period of three to four months 15 per cent (1,455 inmates) had a remand period exceeding four months The information is taken from KOS 2018, Prison and Probation Service and statistics p. 25. According to the Prison and Probation Service, efforts to break the isolation of prisoners are an important aspect of the agency’s work with human rights. For this reason, it is a continuous objective in the operation of remand prisons to increase the time inmates spend in associa- tion and to work with isolation-breaking measures. The Prison and Probation Service measures isolation by conducting a survey seven times a year. In the opinion of the agency, conducting the survey so few times per year means that differences between years can be caused by chance. For this reason, comparisons between the years should be made with great caution. Women and young people are the smallest groups represented by number. This means that changes in these groups’ numbers should be interpreted extra carefully. Furthermore, the Prison and Probation Service emphasises that there are two types of non-response in the survey; missing answers from inmates, and missing registrations for clients.1 The Prison and Probation Service’s report makes a distinction between isolation-breaking measures and isolation-breaking measures that involve human contact. Measures involving human contact can, for example, involve inmates meeting other inmates, staff or visitors, phone time in a cell or trial. Isolation-breaking measures without human contact can, for example, involve inmates being provided with the opportunity to exercise in a gym or spend time in an exercise yard. Such a change in environment is reported as isolation-breaking even if an inmate is alone in an exercise yard or gym.2 Of importance in this context is that an inmate held on remand, in accordance with the main rule, has the right to outdoor access for at least one hour every day (chap. 2 § 7 HäL). 1 2 – 37 – See the Prison and Probation Service’s annual report 2018 pp. 30, 31 and 136. See SOU 2016:52 p. 69.