Prison and Probation Service

The objective of the Government's criminal policy is to reduce crime and increase people's security.

The role of the prison and probation service in this context is to prevent prisoners from committing crimes while serving their sentences. To this end, broad consideration must be given to security and particularly to the need to protect society. Another task of the prison and probation service is to make use of the opportunity provided by the sentence to influence and reform the prisoner so as to reduce the risk of his/her relapsing into crime.

The Governmental Commission on the Prison and Probation Service was in 2002 instructed to draft a proposal for a new, modern act on correctional treatment in institutions that fulfils requirements for an efficient, humanely run service. The Commission was to focus particularly on the question of how the length of prison sentences can be adapted to prevent prisoners from relapsing into crime without compromising on requirements for security and the protection of society. One of the main ideas was that enforcement of sentences should be more individually designed in the future. In June 2005 the commission presented a report.

The prison and probation service is an important arena for society's fight against drugs. Under the Government's national action plan to combat drugs, the prison and probation service has been allocated special funds to enable it, inter alia, to offer substance abusers programmes for motivation and treatment.

The risk of a relapse into abuse and crime is particularly great in connection with release from prison. To enable a gradual transition from prison to freedom supported and controlled by the prison and probation service, it is possible to serve the last part of long prison sentences at home, with intensive supervision using electronic monitoring (electronic tagging). Since experiences have proved positive, the Ministry of Justice plans to increase the use of intensive supervision using electronic monitoring.