Estonia showed off
some of the many empty cells in its Tartus prison on Wednesday
as officials outlined how they would implement a proposed
agreement for Sweden to send up to 600 inmates to the facility
from late next year.
The inter-governmental deal, which has yet to be approved by
either country’s parliament, is one of many plans worldwide to
tackle prison overcrowding – a critical challenge in a third of
European countries according to a report published this month.
With around 600 of 933 places in Tartu Prison vacant,
officers showed journalists around the facility, completed in
2002, as part of efforts to promote the idea locally as well as
to the public across the Baltic Sea in wealthier Sweden.
Sweden will pay 8,500 euros a month per inmate in Estonia
saving on the average 11,500 euros a month cost in Sweden.
Estonia will make its own checks of prisoners selected to be
sent to Tartu, and will have right to send prisoners back, said
Rait Kuuse, head of Estonian Prison and Probation Service.
“We don’t take those who are organisers in organised crime
networks, who adhere to radical extremism,” he said.
Some people in Tartu, Estonia’s second biggest city after
the capital Tallinn, believe the scheme will bring jobs and a
boost for the economy while others fear a negative effect on the
local community, he said.
Certain prisoners would be excluded from transfer, Martin
Gilla, Head of Office for International Affairs at Sweden’s
Prison and Probation Service told Reuters.
“We will not send juveniles, we’ll not send women. That’s
one thing that we have come up with. We will also not send
people that have been convicted for the worst crimes as well and
have high risks,” he said.
Estonia is one of the few European countries to have
recorded a drop in its incarceration rate, which declined 12%
last year from 2023, while Sweden, where gang-related violence
has increased, recorded a 15.5% rise over the same period.
The rate, published in the report by the continent’s leading
human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, records the number
of prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants.
Gilla said Sweden, which had a prison occupancy rate of 141%
in May, was increasing capacity and has considered options such
as prison barges, but that idea was eventually dropped.
At Tartu, the prison interior was painted in bright yellow
and violet, with wooden furniture and bunk beds. There were art
and music rooms and Knuse said inmates would have access to
tablets for videocalling their families at home.
Issues still to be resolved include rehabilitation
programmes, challenges related to visiting by family and
friends, and assuring the right to exercise religion.
The plans are among many such ideas in the region. Belgium
and Norway have in the past hired prison places in the
Netherlands, while Denmark signed a deal with Kosovo in May
2024, a move criticised by Danish human rights experts.
Finland appointed a working group in November to look into<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Estonia showed offsome of the many empty cells in its Tartus prison on Wednesdayas officials outlined how they would implement a proposedagreement for Sweden to send up to 600 inmates to the facilityfrom late next year.The inter-governmental deal, which has yet to be approved byeither country’s parliament, is one of many plans worldwide totackle prison […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n