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Of: TT
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February 1 | Photo: Per Danielsson / TT
The Swedish Prison and Probation Service is building a new institution in Kalmar. Stock Photography.
Kalmar could be the site of the new large prison and a Swedish Prison and Probation Service prison. If the municipality and the authority agree, the institution can be a reality in 2027.
– We are very happy about it, says the president of the municipal board Johan Persson (S).
It has been known for some time that a new institution is under way in eastern Sweden. On Monday, the director general of the Swedish Prison and Probation Service, Martin Holmgren, decided that Kalmar is the city in which the authority will focus to make plans for a new institution and a new prison in eastern Sweden.
The focus is a detention center adjacent to the central city of Kalmar and an institution in a suitable location within the municipality of Kalmar, writes the Swedish Prison and Probation Service on its website. If the conditions are shown to exist, the prison and the institution can become a joint facility.
“New jobs”
The chairman of the municipal board, Johan Persson (S), is pleased that the Swedish Prison and Probation Service is now targeting Kalmar.
– We are very happy about that. That means a number of hundreds of new jobs and investments of more than a billion in the municipality, Johan Persson tells TT.
He says that the people of Kalmar are not afraid of having an institution in the municipality because there is already a prison in the middle of the city, which is also the oldest in Sweden.
– We have a long tradition of prison care.
Kalmar has bought land a little south of the central city and this is the place that the municipality has proposed to the Swedish Prison and Probation Service for the establishment. And now continues the continuous dialogue between the authority and the municipality, in the near future, to go through “the practical”, according to Johan Persson.
– Then it will land on an agreement between the municipality and the Swedish Prison and Probation Service.
Lack of space
The plan is to be able to sign a letter of intent with the municipality of Kalmar about the establishment already around the turn of the year 2020/2021. And the goal is then that the new class 2 institution with at least 300 regular places can be put into use by 2027.
At the beginning of this year, the Swedish Prison and Probation Service signed a collaboration agreement with the municipality of Trelleborg, where an institution, also with some 300 places, will be built in the coming years.
The lack of space in the Swedish Prison and Probation Service is such a big problem today that the authority has gone into personal mode since last spring to handle the situation.
The two new institutions being planned now are long-term solutions. To cope with congestion in institutions and prisons in the short term, the Swedish Prison and Probation Service is working to expand existing institutions with, for example, modular houses and barracks.
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