STOCKHOLM, April 8 (Xinhua) -- More than a third of all Swedish Prisons are overcrowded, Swedish Television (SVT) reported on Monday.
The situation is the worst that it has been in a long time, according to the Swedish Prison and Probation Service, and risks becoming even worse.
SVT reports that there are cases where people have been forced to divide cells that were made for a single occupant. At several institutions, they have been forced to find new solutions, including using the visitor rooms as a living room.
"The situation is very strained," Hanna Jarl, director of Prisons and Jails at the Prison and Probation Service, told SVT.
According to SVT, on average, 97 percent of Sweden's prisons are full, compared to 85 percent five years ago.
Explanations for the overcrowding issue include more severe penalties introduced in recent years and the fact that police and prosecutors have become more effective.
When SVT interviewed a police chief in Skane in February this year, he said that the police cannot do their job "too well" unless the system catches up. Other authorities need to receive more resources in order to support the police's work.
Bengt-Ake Armelius, a professor of psychology on the Scientific Council of the Prisons and Probation Office, told SVT that overcrowding becomes a vicious cycle. "If prisoners do not get the right treatment it leads to an increased risk of recidivism," he said.
At the end of 2018, the Prison and Probation Service decided to expand prisons and jails to create more than 1,100 new places. This, however, corresponds to only half of places needed in the future.
