Sweden will begin sending hundreds of its prisoners to Estonia after striking a deal with the Baltic state to rent 600 prison places, the government announced on Wednesday.
The move comes amid a deepening crisis in Sweden’s penal system, which is operating at over 140 percent capacity in many facilities following a spike in crime in recent years.
Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer confirmed the agreement at a press conference alongside key representatives of the governing Tidö coalition, including Henrik Vinge of the Sweden Democrats (SD), Ingemar Kihlström of the Christian Democrats (KD), and Martin Melin of the Liberals (L).
According to Samnytt, the deal follows months of negotiations and marks the first time Sweden will house a substantial number of its inmates abroad.
“The rooms will be of the same standard and have the same equipment as living rooms have in Swedish prisons,” said Henrik Vinge, chairman of the Justice Committee.
With Sweden’s Prison and Probation Service warning of continued growth in the inmate population, officials have stressed the urgency of the agreement. The current occupancy rate is officially 96 percent, but that figure climbs to 141 percent when excluding temporary double-occupancy solutions hastily introduced to contain the overflow.
The cost of renting a prison place in Estonia will be around €8,500 per prisoner per month — considerably cheaper than the €11,500 it costs to house a prisoner in Sweden. However, the savings come with logistical complications. Prisoners granted leave or temporary release must return to Sweden, and it will be Swedish taxpayers who foot the bill for their transport.
“Leave or other temporary stays will not take place in Estonia,” explained Strömmer. “There will be the same opportunity for leave as in Sweden, but then it will take place in Sweden.”
The announcement comes just weeks after the Swedish government unveiled plans for a series of proposals to toughen the country’s penal system, including a new indefinite prison sentence aimed at individuals deemed to pose a continuing danger to society.
At a press conference last month, Strömmer said that those sentenced under what has been called the “security sentence” provision could be kept incarcerated indefinitely, subject to regular reviews, similar to a system already in use in Denmark. Sweden had a comparable measure in the past, but it was abolished.
A report last February revealed the chaotic nature of Swedish prisons. “We are losing control. The inmates more or less have taken over the prisons,” Christer Hallqvist, chairman of the Seko union’s Department of Correctional Services, said at the time.
He revealed that staff had no choice but to distance themselves from the prisoners, as they do not currently have the resources to “avert incidents,” and warned that the current situation will “end in disaster.”
“We have crossed the line. The politicians need to calm down with their decisions so we can catch up,” he added.
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