Of that amount, over a hundred million will go to paying for the prison places that Sweden plans to rent in Estonia.
Also in 2027 and 2028, the allocations will be increased by 2.8 and 6.6 billion kronor, respectively. The money will finance the Prison and Probation Service's plan to expand from approximately 9,000 prison and remand center places in 2023 to 27,000 in 2034.
The Prison and Probation Service has, however, warned that the calculations of how many places will be needed and how quickly they must be provided are very uncertain.
The government will present a proposal in December with suggestions for building prisons and remand centers more quickly.
It's not just going to be more funds for this important expansion, but also tools to do it in an even shorter time, says Minister for Infrastructure Andreas Carlson (KD).
More prisoners
The government has a number of stricter penalties and other laws in the works that are expected to lead to more prisoners in the prisons.
Already at the turn of the year, the rules for conditional release will be tightened. In the spring, a new type of penalty, security sentence, will be introduced, which means that dangerous violent offenders with a high risk of relapse can be locked up for an indefinite period.
A comprehensive penal law reform will also be implemented, which, among other things, means a tightening of a long range of penalty scales. The government also wants to criminalize participation in criminal organizations. In addition, psychological violence will be criminalized next year.
On the question of whether the government has moved too quickly with the legislative changes, since they are now going to come up with proposals to increase the pace of prison construction, Carlson replies:
Say that a government that sees the development of crime in Sweden as we have seen would wait with reasonable stricter penalties because there is no room in the country's institutions, that would be a mockery of all victims of crime and all those who today do not dare to move freely on the streets and squares.
The allocations increase
The new additions to the budget mean that the Prison and Probation Service's allocation will increase to 24.2 billion kronor in 2026, 28.6 billion kronor in 2027, and 31.5 billion kronor in 2028. This can be compared to 14.6 billion kronor in 2023.
For the entire judicial system, which also includes the police and courts, the budget will grow from 69 billion kronor in 2023 to 108 billion kronor in 2028.
