A luxury prison is being built here for 733 sex offenders

Published 20 May 2024 at 12.27

Domestic. Comforts are not skimped on when a giant prison for 733 sex offenders is built in Gothenburg. Among other things, “large, fresh cells” are offered – and a rest area with a volleyball court and deckchairs, reports Göteborgs-Posten.

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At the Skogome Institution, at Hisingen right outside central Gothenburg, it is being built in full swing. No less than 31 new buildings are to be erected inside the area.

According to the plan, the number of inmates is to multiply in a few years – from today's 200 sex offenders to over 700. And Skogomeanstalten is to become one of the largest prisons in Sweden.

It is “a long-awaited standard increase, both for the clients and the staff “, says Anna Wallman, acting director of the institution, to GP.

– It is a stigmatized group that risks harm if you mix them with other patients. And so we can gather specialist help for them in one place. We have been successful in our work here.

In addition to larger and “fresher” cells equipped with their own toilets, exclusive activities will be offered to the sex offenders.

“On the outside, there are newly built rest areas bathed in sunlight for the day. Here there is a volleyball court, basketball hoops, some pallet collars to grow i, an outdoor gym – and a row of large south-facing sunbeds,” writes GP.

The number of places in Swedish prisons and institutions is to triple in ten years – from today's 9,000 to 27,000. The fastest development is precisely in the Västra Götaland region, where they are now dedicated to increasing capacity in eleven different places. Four years ago, the region had 1,200 prison places, but today the number has already increased to 2,300. In five years, another 3,000 places will be ready.

The forest facility will be able to accommodate a maximum of 733 incarcerated sex offenders when the entire current expansion plan is realized, compared to 202 today.

– The entire expansion is planned be completed in the fall of 2028. Then Skogome will be one of the Correctional Service's largest facilities, says Anna Wallman.