Wants to tidy up the supervision of prisons

Prison hallway cells prisonsA hallway of a prison. Photo: Tom Blackout / Unsplash.

Wants to tidy up the supervision of Norwegian prisons

The supervisory boards for the prisons in Norway carry out inspections without sufficient training or routines. Now the Correctional Services Agency wants to tidy up.

In a letter to the Ministry of Justice, the Norwegian Correctional Services Agency (KDI) lists a number of issues with the day-to-day supervision scheme, which the agency believes do not function as they should.

The Bergens Tidende newspaper has in several articles revealed a number of areas where the supervisory boards are not up to scratch in their ability to fulfil their tasks.

The system of supervisory boards was established in 2001. They are meant to verify that more than 40 Norwegian prisons comply with the legislation.

Many of the members of these boards, however, lack a legal background and have not received adequate training.

Insufficient routines

Insufficient routines for filing reports, poor safeguarding of personal data and different perception of regulations between the supervisory board and the prison management are uncovered, to add insult to injury.

Sandlie believes that it is the Norwegian Ministry of Justice who is responsible for the supervisory boards, just as the Correctional Services Agency is responsible for all the prisons. They must themselves, therefore, be controlled by a reorganised supervisory board as well.

“We recommend a complete review of the entire supervisory system. We suggest that it is thoroughly examined how the supervisory boards’ work – and what function they shall have,” Deputy Director of the Correctional Services Agency, Jan-Erik Sandlie, tells Bergens Tidende.


© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
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