Sweden’s Prison Service Raises Long-Term Prison Capacity Needs to 45,000 Places

In a forecast last spring, the Swedish Prison and Probation Service estimated that 34,000 places would be needed in the long term. In a new report, it has raised the projected need by 11,000, to a total of 45,000 places. The service estimates that changes to the criminal sanctions system alone could mean almost 24,000 additional inmates.

"We will be short of space in Swedish prisons for a long time to come - for many years. I can say definitively that we will be short of space until 2035," says Rikard Jermsten, Director General of the Swedish Prison and Probation Service, to Svd.