Sweden’s Response to the COVID-19 Outbreak

ABSTRACT

The Swedish Prison and Probation Service (SPPS) formed a national crisis management team on March 12, 2020, in response to the global Covid-19 pandemic. The team, consisting of experts from multiple departments within the SPPS, coordinated efforts within the government agency to support the jails, prisons, probation offices, and national transportation service in managing the pandemic while upholding operational security and the safety of staff and inmates. The SPPS handled the Covid-19 outbreak by taking measures to minimize the risk of contagion spread, consistent with the recommendations of the Public Health Agency in Sweden. These recommendations differ from those introduced in many other countries. For example, Sweden chose to avoid a general lockdown. The SPPS’s measures to minimize contagion spread included: canceling all visitation at-and furlough from-jails and prisons, placing inmates with suspected and confirmed Covid-19 infections in isolation, creating digital solutions to minimize travel and in-person meetings, as well as providing protective gear to manage infected inmates and inmates within a risk group. To date, the SPPS has had 143 confirmed inmate cases of Covid-19 and no deaths due to the virus.

KEYWORD:

• Covid-19
• Pandemic
• Alternatives to incarceration
• Early release mechanisms
• Prison reform
• corrections
• jail
• prison
• pandemic
• Sweden

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Observation by coauthor EA present at the unit during the mass action.

2. On February 24, 2020, the SPPS decided to discontinue transfers to inmate commissary accounts to eliminate the possibility to laundered money though the government agency. (Ny hantering av intagnas medel, 2020).

3. The Public Health Authority in Sweden classified risk groups for Covid-19 as individuals of high age, anyone who has received an organ transplant, has cancer, neurological disorders, obesity, chronical breathing disorders, heart disease, or liver disease. (The Public Health Agency in Sweden, 2020). The average rate of SPPS inmates within the risk group from March 2020 to August 2020 has been 4.7%.

4. The average recorded rate of sick leave from March 9, 2020 to August 24, 2020 was 12.7% (jails/prisons: 13.1%, National transportation service: 16.8%, Probation offices: 12.0%, Headquarters: 8.8%). The average sick leave between March 9, 2020 to August 24, 2020 has been 5.4%. On August 24, 2020, the sick leave average was 3.4%.

5. The average rate of SPPS inmates within the risk group from March 2020 to August 2020 has been 4.7%.