OTHER ISSUES
example during body searches. For these reasons, in the
view of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, there is a great
on staff
Staff who work in secure responsibility
working in secure enenvironments have a par- vironments to stay at
ticularly large responsibi- home even with very lility to stay at home even mited symptoms. In the
several
with very mild symptoms questionnaire,
inmates stated that there was also a large staff turnover. An inmate at Svartsjö
prison made the following comment:
“Since the decision to remove visits + leave was
made with the motivation to protect us inmates +
staff, it is a bit strange that the staff changes have
more or less doubled. Fever checks should be performed on staff when entering the prison, but does
not happen since staff show up for work with fever
and a sore throat. Introducing a ban on visits and
leave has not limited or [reduced] the risk of becoming infected with any virus, instead we have had
the same risk of infection as the rest of society. The
only thing that has been limited is my opportunity
to meet [my family]. Otherwise, everything is the
same and the same applies to the risk of being exposed to infection. ”
7
and that the activities are organised in such a way that
staff do not work in different places as much as is possible.
During conversations that the Parliamentary Ombudsmen employees had with staff in prisons and remand
prisons, it emerged that inmates who were suspected or
confirmed to be infected with Covid-19 at Kronoberg
prison had been placed in the prison’s department assigned for caregiving. Five of a total of ten places were
intended for these inmates, and the other five places were
used for placement of inmates with other care needs. It
was stated that the same staff came into contact with the
inmates there regardless of the reason why they were
placed in the department. Parliamentary Ombudsman
Katarina Påhlsson stated that there was, therefore, a risk
of Covid-19 infection being transmitted to inmates who
had other types of care needs. For this reason, she assumed that the staff there at least had access to the right
protective equipment and were, in addition, trained in
how to use it.
7.4 A former detainee who died of Covid-19
After Parliamentary Ombudsman Katarina Påhlsson’s final dialogue meeting with the management of the Prison
and Probation Service, the agency announced that there
were now strategies where the question of limiting the
number of inmates that the employees came into contact
with was “included”. Due to this, the Parliamentary Ombudsman emphasised that a reasonable starting point
must be that contact between departments is reduced
During the investigation of the Swedish Migration
Agency’s measures in connection with Covid-19, details
emerged that a man previously detained at the detention centre in Märsta had been infected with Covid-19
and then died in hospital. After the Police Authority had
decided to revoke his detention order, the man was still
allowed to remain in the detention centre. The head of
the detention centre made a note stating that they had
kept the man in the detention centre and that the decision had been made with “consideration of the situation
in Sweden where we have a responsibility to reduce the
spread of infection.” According to the note, the person
– 57 –
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