50 ANNUAL REPORT 2011 Just under half of the prisoners are serving sentences for very serious sexual crimes. On 26 October 1995, 56 sexual offenders were serving their sentences at Herstedvester Prison. Of these, 31 had received sentences of indefinite imprisonment, six were serving eight to 16 years and only 19 less than eight years. This in itself shows that the sexual offenders at Herstedvester Prison have committed very serious sexual crimes. It is obvious that persons guilty of such serious crimes have major problems managing their sex drives and for this reason alone it is a cause for grave concern that female prisoners have to serve their sentences with them. In addition, relatively many of the sexual offenders at the prison can only be granted a pardon or be conditionally discharged or released if they accept medical castration, a treatment which it has in several cases been difficult to motivate the prisoners to consider, partly due to influence by some of the female prisoners.’ Initiatives by the Parliamentary Ombudsman In his final report of 13 May 19972 of an inspection of the women’s block at Herstedvester Prison on 13 and 16 December 1996, the Ombudsman stated, among other things: ‘It is clearly unacceptable that mentally ill women are compulsorily placed in a situation where they feel pressurised into marrying a male prisoner – possibly a prisoner sentenced for a very serious and dangerous sexual crime. The Prison and Probation Service is responsible for ensuring that sentenced women who need psychiatric/psychological assistance are offered such help in an institution where there is no risk that they are exposed to pressure to marry a man sentenced for a serious sexual crime. This should be achieved without resulting in any negative effect on the female prisoners’ employment and education opportunities. I do not regard it as my place to suggest what solution should be implemented to establish such conditions. I recommend that the Department of the Prison and Probation Service find a solution as soon as possible to the above-mentioned problem and I ask to be informed of further developments in the case.’ On the basis of the Ombudsman’s recommendation, the Department of the Prison and Probation Service established a new women’s block in the Prison. The new block consisted of two separate sections with room for six and eight prisoners, respectively. In the new block, the women were still able to serve their sentences separate from the male prisoners, but now this also applied to some extent to leisure time, prison yard exercise, employment and education. Initially, the Parliamentary Ombudsman therefore took no further action in the matter, but asked the Department of the Prison and Probation Service for 2 Parliamentary Ombudsman Report for 1996, pp. 363-399 (esp. pp. 380-381)