It is now so full in the country’s institutions that the majority are forced to use their visiting rooms to accommodate inmates. This is shown by a review carried out by TV4 Nyheterna.
For relatives, this means a severe limitation in being able to see their family members.
– It feels tough. It is something completely different to be able to sit next to him and give him a hug than to sit through a phone conversation, says a mother who wishes to remain anonymous.
She has not been able to see her son, who is in his 20s, for almost two months. Since last summer, he has been serving a multi-year prison sentence at the class 2 prison in Karlskoga for serious weapons offences. But due to overcrowding, the visiting rooms there have occasionally been used as accommodation for new inmates.
Even when the rooms were available, the double occupancy, with nearly 160 people in 108 rooms, meant that there was a shortage of free times.
– We would like our clients to be able to receive visitors, but the Correctional Service has a very tight space situation and we have to use all the space we can to prepare space, explains Roger Andersson, director of correctional services in Karlskoga.
Many visitor rooms become living quarters
A survey conducted by Nyheterna shows that almost all of them, 21 of the 23 class 1 and 2 facilities that responded, have had to use one or more visiting rooms as accommodation.
At Beateberg, south of Stockholm, they have sometimes been forced to use all the rooms.
– No, it’s not good, you need contact with your loved ones because otherwise it becomes very closed. But this is probably a new situation for a very long time to come, says Maria Thunqvist-Eklund, Head of Correctional Services at Beatebergsanstalten.
“He is excluded from society”
The Correctional Service has previously announced that two out of three visiting rooms at the highest security facilities 1 and 2 will have to be converted into accommodation for an indefinite period.
In Karlskoga, they are working on finding other spaces that can work to receive visitors, but it is unclear when that will be feasible. In the meantime, the frustration of relatives grows.
– He is shut out of the society he is going back to. I heard in his voice that he was sorry when he called and talked about this. It is a big disappointment not knowing when we will see each other again, says a mother who wishes to remain anonymous.