Government pledges to build its own prison departments for mentally ill

Prison.Photo: pixabay.com

Norway pledged to build a new prison department for mentally ill prisoners at Ila Prison.

On Tuesday, Norwegian authorities attended the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. There, they had to answer for cleaning up Norwegian prisons.

During the UN hearing, State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, Thor Kleppen Sættem of Høyre (H) said ’’The Government’s goal is that all mentally ill prisoners should be treated with dignity and receive sufficient health care.’’

The most concrete measure the Secretary of State put forward was the planned community department at Ila Prison, which will be able to accommodate six mentally sick and outgoing prisoners reported Bergens Tidende newspaper.

Around NOK 18 million has been set aside for this in the state budget.

There will be more organized departments for inmates going forward
promised Sættem.

“The available psychiatric treatment capacity for inmates will improve over the next few years, by the building of new units for people with severe mental illness” said the Secretary of State.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today

RSS Feed