In Sweden, there are 62 HVB homes that take in children and young people with criminal behaviour.

In contrast to closed youth care at SIS homes, HVB homes do not have the right to resort to coercive and restrictive measures, i.e. measures against the person's will.

- There are drugs coming into HVB homes, there are weapons of various kinds.

Then you can't even go into their room to see if there are weapons and knives, because it's too privacy-infringing, says Åsa Furén-Thulin, section manager at the department for care and social care at SKR. 

She recently met the Minister of Social Services and made demands for increased protection measures at HVB homes.

It is about being able to confiscate mobile phones or computers, lock up weapons, search residents' rooms and drug test young people. 

- Serious crime has increased, so the severity of both SIS and HVB has increased.

Then you also have to follow that development, says Åsa Furén-Thulin.

The HVB home: We have no mandate

SVT Nyheter has gone through a series of cases from recent years that give an insight into how young boys placed in HVB homes go about the gangs' affairs.

One who knows the problem well is Olow Sundström.

He runs Retro HVB outside Uppsala.

In many cases, the young people are already serious criminals when they come to the HVB home, he believes.

Once there, they can continue to have contact with other criminals. 

- When you come to a treatment center and talk on the phone all the time with those you committed mischief with, then only the body is in the treatment center. 

That there are escapes is not strange, says Olow Sundström.

As the law stands today, there is no possibility to prevent someone from deviating, with the exception of care according to the LVU when measures can be taken with the aim of preventing the child from running away.

According to IVO, however, this does not mean that HVB can keep children locked up.

- If someone wants to knit, we do not have a mandate to try to influence more than talking to the youth.

Hear Olow Sundström list problems at HVB homes in the clip above.

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