isolation of individuals held on remand 90 Isolation of individuals held on remand Since 2017, the Parliamentary Ombudsmen’s OPCAT work has followed the situation for inmates in the Prison and Probation Service’s remand prisons. In addition to conducting a number of inspections of remand prisons, in 2019 Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman Elisabeth Rynning invited representatives of the Prison and Probation Service to a dialogue meeting. At the meeting, she raised issues concerning inmates’ rights to association with others and the Prison and Probation Service’s work with isolation-breaking measures. In a decision on 5 February 2020, the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman commented on these issues.1 On 26 February 2020, the Parliamentary Ombudsmen’s OPCAT Unit published a thematic report Isolation of inmates in remand prisons. This section contains a summary of the report. Inmates in remand prisons have the right to associate with others An inmate is deemed isolated if they are alone for more than 22 hours per day An inmate has the right to associate with other inmates during the day. In the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman’s opinion, this means that an inmate has the right to associate with several other inmates. This fundamental right can be limited by both restrictions set by a prosecutor and segregation decisions. A denied right to associate with others may result in an inmate being isolated. Isolation can lead to both mental and physical problems. Isolation is defined as an inmate being alone for more than 22 hours per day without meaningful human contact. An inmate is considered as being longterm isolated if they have been isolated for a period exceeding 15 days. The majority of inmates in Swedish remand prisons are isolated The Prison and Probation Service has great difficulty in achieving its own objective that remand prisoners held with restrictions should be able to receive isolation-breaking measures for at least two hours per day. It also does not succeed in giving all remand prisoners held without restrictions isolationbreaking measures to this extent, despite the fact that this group of inmates actually has the right to associate with others during the day. The Prison and Probation Service’s objective in this regard is modest in comparison with the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture’s (the CPT) standard, according to which all inmates in remand prisons and prisons must be given the opportunity to spend at least eight hours outside their cell every day. 1 See the Parliamentary Ombudsmen’s decision of 5 February 2020, ref. no. O 7-2018.