The Ministry of Justice proposed in May in a draft amendment to the law that conditional release may not take place for sentences of at least six years, before three-quarters have been served. Today, the limit is two-thirds.
This is a major change that is to take place as early as the turn of the year. The Prison and Probation Service is now warning in a statement that they will not have time.
We will not have a system support in place by the turn of the year, says Chief Legal Officer Elisabeth Lager.
This would mean that sentence decisions, which include when a convicted person is to be released, would have to be calculated manually.
It feels very cumbersome and the risk of errors increases, says Lager.
In the worst case, it could result in incorrect deprivation of liberty.
Difficult to do
The Ministry of Justice also proposes that from January 1, 2026, conditional release may be postponed in the event of a risk of recidivism in serious crimes. Lager states that this is also a major change that takes time to prepare and implement. She emphasizes that assessments of the risk of recidivism are difficult to make.
It's something completely new for us, says Lager.
The proposed change can also lead to increased threats and violence against staff.
The inmate may feel that they will have their release postponed anyway, so why should they behave, says Lager.
The Prison and Probation Service advises against, as they have done before, also abolishing the current two-thirds release. The reasons are several, but one is the uncertainty surrounding how many more prison places are needed.
There is a lot happening right now within criminal policy. There are many proposals that have been made, says Lager.
We are asking the Government Offices to conduct a comprehensive analysis of what everything will entail.
Investigator advised against
Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer (The Moderate Party) points out that three-quarters release should be introduced gradually so that the Prison and Probation Service can keep up. They are starting with sentences of at least six years from January 1. But the Prison and Probation Service prefers that the change takes place simultaneously for all crimes and only when the agency has had time to adapt its systems.
"The responses received from the Prison and Probation Service and other stakeholders are very important in the continued work" says Strömmer in a comment and adds that the responses are now being analyzed.
Even the government's investigator advised against abolishing the two-thirds release last year and assessed that such a reform, together with other tightening measures, can be introduced at the earliest in 2030.
