Complaint against the Swedish Prison and Probation Service that staff at Saltvik Remand Prison routinely monitor certain visits by the Council for Spiritual Welfare

Summary of the decision: The secure unit at Saltvik Remand Prison has instituted routine monitoring by personnel of visits by the Council for Spiritual Welfare (NAV) involving multiple inmates. The procedure was instituted due to a new recommendation from the head office of the Swedish Prison and Probation Service.

The investigation shows that the purpose of the new arrangement is to minimise the risk of attempts to exert undue influence. However, in its consultation response, the Swedish Prison and Probation Service fails to describe the actual reasons for the new recommendation in greater detail. While the Parliamentary Ombudsman finds reason to question whether the prison has adequately observed the principle of proportionality when operationalising the recommendation, given the limited documentation in the case she does not consider there to be any grounds for criticism. However, as the risk of undue influence must reasonably be considered to vary depending on factors such as the inmates and composition of inmates involved, she considers it somewhat categorical to apply the new procedure without exception to all meetings with NAV staff involving multiple inmates. The Parliamentary Ombudsman makes certain statements concerning what, in her opinion, the prison can be expected to consider when applying the procedure in question and in its operations in general.

The review of the case was partly prompted by concerns that the prison appeared to have provided incorrect information to the Parliamentary Ombudsman in a previous case. This has proven not to be the case. However, for this reason the Parliamentary Ombudsman takes the opportunity to explain the procedure for collecting oral information from the Swedish Prison and Probation Service.