Almost every fifth employee in the correctional service left last year. At the same time, there are plans to greatly expand the business. Unreasonable, says the union – which warns of an explosive development in the country’s prisons.
Situations when correctional officers are attacked by a prisoner and have to be taken to hospital with injuries are becoming more and more common. At the same time, many prisons are full and the employees have to juggle the places.
– We are sitting in the shit, that’s how it is, says Mattias Reinholdsson, correctional officer and Seko representative.
One in five correctional officers quit
According to ST, almost every fifth correctional officer left the profession in 2023. The high staff turnover means a loss of competence, which in the long run can become a safety problem.
From the trade union side, parallels are now being drawn to 1994, when the Tidaholm Institution was shaken by riots.
– I really hope that we make sure we don’t end up in a similar situation. It is not possible to duck because there is a concern that sooner or later we will have a really serious incident, says Joachim Danielsson, department chairman of the trade union ST.
Triple the number of prisoners
Tidöpartierna and the Swedish Correctional Services Agency expect a tripling of the number of prisoners in the next ten years, from today’s 9,000 to 27,000. Something that requires new recruitment of staff on a massive scale, a total of around 15,000 people.
– It will take a very long time. Building a prison takes ten years, building a detention center takes many years. This is a situation we will have to live with now, and deal with for several years, says Mattias Reinholdsson, correctional officer and Seko trustee.
Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer says in a comment to TV4Nyheterna that it is “Central to both retain and recruit new employees”.
Strömmer also says that the employees are important for the safety of the prisons, but that staffing is ultimately a matter for the correctional services authority.