– It is contrary to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and it is contrary to what Norway has said about how we want to treat children who have to go to prison, says civil ombudsman Hanne Harlem to news. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that the imprisonment of children should only be used as a last resort. If children must be imprisoned, they must be kept separate from adults. This is not the case in Eidsberg prison in Indre Østfold, which has three prisons for minors. – When we were there, there were two minors in prison. They were partly together with adult inmates alone, without any of the employed officers present, says Harlem. Eidsberg prison currently has three prison places for minors. Photo: Nadir Alam / news The Civil Ombudsman believes that the current practice must be stopped immediately. – The follow-up of minors in the prison was very deficient and poses a risk of a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, writes the ombudsman in his report. The civil ombudsman also recommends that the Ministry of Justice and Emergency Preparedness implement measures to ensure that minors are not placed in prison for adults. news has been in contact with the ministry. They have not yet had the opportunity to comment on the matter. The ombudsman’s main findings The prison does not have a separate section for minors and the children who are placed in the prison are placed together with adult inmates. The placement of children in prison is not done on the basis of an assessment of whether detention together with adults is in the individual child’s best interest. The prison is not in a position to follow up the minors sufficiently, and we have seen several examples of them being unsafe and afraid. At times, minors are alone with adult inmates. The youth team that will look after minors will also look after the many young inmates who are adults and who are placed in the prison. The team has neither the capacity nor the resources for this. The prison is a clearly worse offer for minors than the youth units. There is a lack of national guidelines for the scheme and reporting on whether the scheme is weak. The Correctional Service lacks reliable statistics on the number of minors in prison for adults. The Directorate of Correctional Services and Eidsberg prison give different figures for how many minors have been in the prison in 2023-24. Minor inmates are also placed in other prisons for adults and some stay at these prisons for longer periods. Source: Civil ombudsman’s thematic report “Children in Eidsberg prison” Insufficient follow-up – Interviews with employees in the prison confirmed that minors were in several cases unsafe and several employees believed that minors should not be in this prison, the report states. Eidsberg prison has also had major staffing problems with the youth team that is supposed to follow up the minors. – There are supposed to be five to six people, but now for a longer period there has been one person, says Harlem. The reprimanding problems have also led to insufficient follow-up for the minors who served time in the prison. – It is the Ministry of Justice that must sort this out. Eidsberg must try to do the best they can within the framework they have. But with their situation, it is not easy to look after children in a sufficiently good way. Civil ombudsman Hanne Harlem. Photo: Kaspara Stoltze / news The Children’s Ombudsman is critical – It is a clear requirement under the Convention on the Rights of the Child that children should not be in prison together with adults. What this report points to, and the work the Civil Ombudsman has done, shows that it still happens, says Ivar Stokkereit. He is subject manager at the Children’s Ombudsman, and refers to the Civil Ombudsman’s findings as serious. Head of Department at the Children’s Ombudsman Ivar Stokkereit expects the Ministry of Justice to follow up the Civil Ombudsman’s findings. Photo: Children’s Ombudsman – We expect the ministry to follow up on this. They must look at whether there is too low a threshold for imprisoning children, whether good enough child support assessments are made in the courts in these cases, and whether the courts have good enough information about what services the correctional service has available. – Disturbing Last year and so far this year, minors have been placed in 13 different high-security prisons for adults, the Civil Ombudsman’s investigations show. The prisons in Agder, Bergen, Bredtveit, Froland, Hamar, Hustad, Larvik, Mandal, Sem, Skien, Stavanger, Trondheim and Ullersmo have all had minor inmates. – Although several of the stays have been short and may be linked to court hearings, we also see examples where children have spent several weeks, and even months, in prison with adults. This is disturbing, says Harlem in a press release. Over the past ten years, there have been on average 27 minors re-incarcerated in Norwegian prisons each year. From January to April in 2024, the corresponding figure is 20. The Directorate of Correctional Services writes in an e-mail to news that they will now go through the report thoroughly before giving their feedback to the Civil Ombudsman. – We therefore have no further comments at this time. Published 13.06.2024, at 11.52
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Civil ombudsman critical of children serving time together with adults in Eidsberg prison – news Østfold – Local news, TV and radio
