Employees feel unsafe at work in prison: –

– In this case, the consideration for the life and health of the employees should simply take precedence over the interests or wishes of the inmates not to carry out a body visit. I think it’s a completely obvious assessment that the Storting should make, says FRP’s Per-Willy Amundsen, who is a member of the Storting’s Justice Committee.

The Norwegian Prison and Probation Service (KDI) withdrew the opportunity to regularly visit inmates in Norwegian prisons, following a ruling by the Gulating Court of Appeal this summer. The ruling concluded that the regulations for body searches violate the prohibition of degrading treatment of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Now there must be a concrete suspicion that such a visit may take place.

– unacceptable

Prison officer Klaus Lintho, a board member of NFF Halden, had previously told Dagbladet that there is now a fear that prisoners may bring drugs and items into prisons, and that this in turn can lead to dangerous situations . After the KDI request arrived, the association sent out a formal notice.

– It is not the opportunity to see naked prisoners that is our point. The point is safety. When you remove a security measure, you must replace it with a measure that is at least as good as the one you removed. What you see here is far from satisfactory from a work environment perspective. It threatens our security, it threatens the prisoners and not least society, says Lintho.

However, both KDI and the Halden prison management have previously told Dagbladet that they believe the current security is sufficient.

Conservative Party prison care policy spokesperson Frida Melvær tells Dagbladet that there is no doubt that prison security will be safeguarded for both prisoners and employees.

– If this is true, then, of course, action must be taken. But these measures must take place within the framework of the law. The way the probation service has carried out the body searches so far has been shown to be in conflict with the ECHR, and then it is inappropriate to continue this practice, he says.

– It becomes a potentially deadly combination.

Only ten prisons have

So far, body scanners have been installed in ten Norwegian prisons, and the eleventh is underway, according to KDI, which has assessed that the need is not so great in all prisons.

KDI has informed the Ministry of Justice and Emergency Preparedness that there are currently 19 high-security prisons in Norway that lack these scanners. KDI further states that if security scanners are to be installed in all Norwegian prisons, 31 new machines will need to be purchased, priced at approximately NOK 56 million, in addition to installation costs.

FRP believes that KDI’s decision should now be reversed until body scanners are in place in all Norwegian prisons.

– This is not a problem and should only be resolved. You have to buy the scanners and install them, and until then KDI’s decision should be reversed. We simply have to overturn that decision, Amundsen says, adding that such scanners are already in the alternative state budget of the FRP.

Severely weakened

The Labor Party is also calling on the government to ensure that scanners are installed in the country’s prisons and will ask the government to return to the Storting with this in the revised national budget.

– It is shocking that the government has not provided funds in the state budget so that scanners can be introduced into prisons to comply with Gulating’s verdict, Maria Aasen-Svendsrud, a member of the justice committee at the Storting for the Party, tells Dagbladet Labor.

Man arrested for pub bombing after 46 years

Aasen-Svendsrud believes it is important and good to focus on the conditions of inmates in Norwegian prisons, but believes that the Conservative government has adopted “unworthy cuts for years” in prison care.

That life and health may now be at stake in the country’s prisons, so the prison service may have to ask for a waiver from the consequences of Gulating’s verdict, until the scanners are in place, the government must take measurements. This is due to the government’s delay and lack of focus on prison care, he believes.

Imprisoned: received support for 53 alleged “ghost employees”

– sensational

The proposal of Frp and the Labor Party makes the Conservative Party Melvær react.

– No, it is not relevant to go back to the random body searches, which the Court of Appeal has concluded is both degrading and contrary to the ECHR. It is quite surprising if the union, the Labor Party and the Progress Party want to go back to a scheme where they actually break with the ECHR, says Melvær.

Norwegian escapes: butter knife and surfboard

He notes that clear investments have already been made in digital tools to increase security in prisons, including body scanners and X-ray equipment.

The latter is currently in 34 prisons and increases security because the smuggling of drugs, weapons and media is revealed to a greater extent, says Melvær.

– What plans do you have to install these scanners and, if so, how quickly?

– This is a budget issue to which we must return, says Melvær, who also points out that the Labor Party has not set aside money for body scanners in its recently presented alternative budget.