Sweden, with a rising prison population and limited space in its prisons, is looking to cut a deal with Estonia to house some of its prison population.
In terms of an agreement signed in June, Estonia would make as many as 600 places available to convicts from Sweden. This month, Sweden’s justice department told the Kriminalvården (the Swedish prison and probation service) to “make the necessary preparations” to operationalise it. The plan, which still needs endorsement by the parliaments of both countries, could begin next year.
Swedish officials contend that the country’s prisons face a “crisis of overcrowding”. A report from the Kriminalvården said that the country’s prison population could rise from 7 800 in the current year to as many as 41 000 in 2034.
Sweden’s penal system has historically focused on rehabilitation and reintegration. The country has long had relatively little violent crime, but an upsurge in gang violence has led to a reassessment of that approach.
There has been an associated rise of teenagers charged with serious offences, and plans are under consideration to introduce youth prisons, as opposed to existing youth care homes.
Gunnar Strömmer, the Swedish justice minister, said the arrangement with Estonia represented “an important step to relieve the Swedish prison and probation service” from a “pressured situation”.
He continued: “For it to work in practice, careful preparations are required. It is crucial that everything from security and legal certainty to cooperation with Estonian authorities are ready to function properly when the agreement comes into force.”
Critics have argued that the small number of placements in Estonia would have little impact on overcrowding, and that the policy denoted appeasement of the “far right”. Sweden’s incumbent centre-right government needs the support of the populist Sweden Democrats to function; however some of its proposed penal reforms have been supported by the opposition Social Democrats too.
Emelí Lönnqvist, a criminologist at Stockholm University commented: “It’s quite terrifying that everything is happening without much debate around it. “We’re looking at basically mass incarceration like we have seen in the US, and we know that it doesn’t work. We know it’s the opposite: it’s going to make things worse.”
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