Concerns within the Swedish Prison and Probation Service: "If it gets messy, the visor will fly"

From Monday, it will be possible to visit class 1 and 2 institutions and the prison.

The relief is surrounded by a number of measures due to the risk of spreading the infection.

Among other things, visits will take place without body contact and with a glass plate between visitors and the inmate.

It is up to the employees within the Swedish Prison and Probation Service to ensure that the rules on body contact are followed, something that has aroused criticism from the staff.

- From now on, we will wear a visor if we are less than two meters from people.

Restrictions on staff are tightened but visits are allowed.

It rhymes badly, says an employee to SVT News.

The person states that he is now looking around for a new job and thinks that the employer side has been bad at listening.

- If it gets messy, the visor will fly.

And keeping two meters away from a messy client is a challenge.

The union: "Is there a limit"

According to Roger Nilsson, coordinator in Region South for the trade union Seko, the increased workload can cause problems in the long run.

- There will be new structures that take time and energy.

It wears out, of course, and is extremely strenuous.

On that lies the strained occupancy situation we have, he says.

Roger Nilsson also emphasizes that he thinks that the employer side has listened to the criticism.

- At the same time, we must protect our employees.

There is a limit to when we say we are tired and worn out.

We have said that we can handle this year, but next year when you have had double coatings for a long time, and possibly covid that increases among staff and inmates, so in the future it is probably critical.

"Not at any price"

Susanne Wedin, regional manager at the prison service in Stockholm, understands the employees' concerns about infection, but believes that the risk is small as long as the routines are followed.

- We have been preparing to receive visits for a long time now and we believe that we can make it as infectious as needed.

Then we will always make a trade-off based on the current situation.

If we have an infection among staff or inmates, we can reconsider the decision.

We do not implement this at all costs, she says.

- Our assessment is that we have such good equipment and good routines that we should not risk the staff being infected.

It is a major restriction on the rights of inmates that we have had to consider.

We have found that a general stoppage of visits is not justified.