Since 2015, the number of persons imprisoned in institutions has increased by 91 percent. During the past year, 11,812 persons began serving a prison sentence in Sweden – the highest number since 1996.
The number of newly imprisoned persons in institutions has varied over the last ten-year period with a decline until 2017, but has since increased.
”The increase in the number of imprisoned persons in institutions since 2017 is primarily explained by the tougher sentencing of serious crimes that has occurred in recent years", says Charlotta Lindström, statistician, Brå.
Due to the sharply increased number of imprisoned persons in prisons, the overcrowding in institutions is also increasing. In 2024, the occupancy rate of the institutions' regular places was 131 percent, compared to 92 percent in 2018, which was the year Brå began measuring overcrowding.
