APPENDIX
Dnr O 7-2018 Page 11 (15)
The representatives of the Prison and Probation Service stated that the national
surveys of the use of isolation-breaking measures in remand prisons carried out
by the agency include all inmates. Inmates placed in an association place within
an association department are reported in the category inmates without
restrictions.
The category inmates with restrictions, in addition to inmates with restrictions,
also includes inmates with a decision to be placed in segregation, inmates
placed in an association place not located within an association department as
well as inmates segregated with no basis in law. “Generalisable surveys” means
that the result refers to the total, however there are no surveys for specific
details, for example what the result may mean for a specific remand prison. The
surveys carried out in 2015–2017 are based on the same criteria and are
comparable. The surveys carried out in 2014 and earlier are based on other
criteria and are therefore not comparable in the same way. However, a
preliminary study has found that none of the surveys are sufficiently adequate to
be used at the local level, nor to make comparisons nationally. The Prison and
Probation Service wants to change this and it has an ongoing project to develop
and introduce a central support system for the use of isolation-breaking
measures.
The Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman emphasised that the basis for the Prison
and Probation Service's 2020 budget states that work on the use of isolationbreaking measures will not be prioritised, and she then asked if this also means
that this issue will not be prioritised during 2019.
The representatives of the Prison and Probation Service stated that within the
agency, priority is currently given to projects relating to the support system for
the calculation of sentences and the number of inmates. Previous experience of
developing such support systems shows that, as a reasonable estimate, it will
take approximately five years from the start of the work until there is support
system in place that makes it possible to measure the use of isolation-breaking
measures. Unfortunately, there are no synergy effects regarding other ongoing
support system projects, as the Prison and Probation Service’s registration
system (KVR) is a complicated system. The cooperation that exists with the
Prosecution Authority to try to develop the statistics regarding remand orders
and restrictions is based on already existing statistical data, and there is
therefore no need to build any new support system. This means that the
deprioritising of isolation-breaking measures leads to a delay in the work of
starting to develop a support system for this issue.
The Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman stated that it is extremely serious and
very unsatisfactory that the Prison and Probation Service's existing national
surveys of the use of isolation-breaking measures are unreliable, and are made
in such a way that it is not possible to see in which direction the development is
going. It must be difficult to use the surveys in one's own operation, but is also
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