Generally, a person convicted of certain sexual offences initially has to serve their sentence at Herstedvester Prison’s assessment and observation unit. Here it is to be determined if the convicted person has a need for – and is motivated for – sexological treatment, for example.
However, the waiting time for transfer to the unit is long, and many of the convicted persons have served a relatively large part of their sentence before they come to the assessment unit. This means that the purpose of the assessment programme may be lost because then the inmates do not have time to be offered treatment or to benefit from it. The long waiting time can also have a bearing on the convicted persons’ leave plans and in the end their possibility for conditional parole.
‘A long waiting time for transfer of convicted sexual offenders to the assessment programme can mean that there are convicted sexual offenders that do not receive the relevant sexual or psychiatric treatment while they serve their sentences. Out of consideration for society as well as the individual inmate, there is reason to keep a great focus on reducing the waiting time’, says Parliamentary Ombudsman Christian Britten Lundblad.
Furthermore, the Ombudsman states that it is only in connection with his present investigation that the Prison and Probation Service has taken action to ensure that records are made which allow the Service to follow the development in the waiting time on an ongoing basis.
In light of that, the Ombudsman expresses criticism of the Prison and Probation Service in the case.
Long waiting time for a number of years
The Ombudsman’s investigation comes in continuation of an investigation from 2020 about the same matter. Also here did the Ombudsman find that many of the inmates had served a relatively large part of their sentence before transfer to Herstedvester Prison’s assessment and observation unit.
In connection with a monitoring visit to Herstedvester Prison on 12 and 13 September 2023, the waiting time was discussed with the institution’s management who informed the Ombudsman of the then current waiting list and waiting time. Besides, the Ombudsman received several complaints in 2023 from inmates about the waiting time.
On that basis, the Ombudsman started a new investigation of the waiting time for transfer to the assessment and observation unit.
In connection with his just completed investigation, the Ombudsman can as mentioned determine that there is still a long waiting time, and there are still many of the inmates that have served a relatively large part of their sentence before transfer to the unit.
The Prison and Probation Service has in connection with the Ombudsman’s investigation manually calculated the average waiting time for persons staying at the assessment and observation unit for a 3-month period in 2024, and who prior to that were on a waiting list, to be approx. 6 months. However, in some cases, the waiting time is significantly longer and in some individual cases longer than a year.
The Prison and Probation Service has set up a working group to look at initiatives that can reduce the waiting time, and the Department of Prisons and Probation is going to consider an adjustment of the assessment programme.
The Ombudsman is asking the Prison and Probation Service to inform him of the results – or status – of the deliberations in the working group and in the Department of Prisons and Probation by 1 October 2025 at the latest.
Read the Ombudsman’s statement.
Further details:
Director of International Relations Klavs Kinnerup Hede, kkh@ombudsmanden.dk