The abolition of the current reduced sentences for people convicted of multiple crimes at the same time was a hot topic during the election campaign. Now the conflict is flaring up again in the Justice Committee.
The Sweden Democrats (SD) proposed on Tuesday that the Riksdag urge the government to decide that the entire criminal justice reform, including the abolition of today’s volume discount, should come into effect in 2029.
The Riksdag finalised the last part of the criminal justice reform this summer, but gave the government a mandate to decide when it should come into effect. The reason was a lack of prison places.
The red-green parties opposed the proposal. The Social Democrats (S) pointed out that there was a lack of both funding and a plan to provide sufficient prison places.
New majority
After the election, the red-greens have a majority both on the committees and in the Riksdag as a whole.
However, SD’s legal policy spokesperson Alexander Christiansson does not rule out the possibility of securing a majority for the proposal with the help of the Centre Party (C).
“I think it’s a good proposal. It’s also something the Moderates raised during the election campaign,” says Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer (M).
Since the current government is a caretaker government, it cannot decide when the measures will take effect without the support of the Riksdag, he points out.
According to the Swedish Prison and Probation Service’s latest assessments, the full effect of both punishment increases already introduced and those still to come would mean a need for 45,000 prison and detention places by 2045. The Swedish Prison and Probation Service’s costs are estimated to increase from SEK 24 billion this year to SEK 80–85 billion in 2045.
There are currently 13,000 places, with a plan to expand capacity to 20,000 by 2035.
Can you hurry up?
M and SD say it is possible to speed up the expansion with a series of new measures proposed by the Moderates during the election campaign. Strömmer has also criticised the Prison and Probation Service’s calculations for not taking into account that crime is falling under current criminal policy.
Strömmer appeared before the Justice Committee on Tuesday to explain how his plans fit with the Prison and Probation Service’s assessment.
“There is a huge gap here, and there are no other forecasts, figures or plans than those of the Swedish Prison and Probation Service,” says committee chair Teresa Carvalho (S).
She warns that criminals may have to be released if tougher sentences are introduced too quickly.
S wants to start by abolishing the volume discount only for serious violent and sexual crimes.
“If we are going to abolish the volume discount for serious crimes, we need a new government in place, it’s as simple as that,” she says.
The Riksdag has decided on several tougher penalties that do not yet have a date for coming into force:
Today’s sentence reductions for multiple offences should be abolished.
Certain grounds for mitigating punishment should be removed.
Courts should more often impose sentences towards the top of the penalty range for an offence.
Release after serving two-thirds of a sentence should be changed to release after three-quarters, even for sentences under six years.
What do you think?